Chuck Versus the Lost Childhood
by Neale
Summary: Sorry, I tried to pick this one up, but I found that I was changing too much of the story when tried to get it into line with where I wanted it to go, so I decided to close this one off and start Chuck Versus the Lost Childhood - Revised, which will be started today. Sorry 'bout that. ; )
1. Chuck Versus the Lost Childhood

**I'm still rewriting the stories the Chuck Daemon stories came out of, so I'm not ready to progress them yet, but I've had the urge to have another stab at a contemporary Chuck story.**

 **This chapter has references to rather unpleasant topics and same sex relationships, so anyone who has issues with these topics should not read it. It may explain how General Beckman ended up with Roan, too.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney princess tale.**

Chuck's childhood had ended in November Nineteen Eighty Nine, just after his eighth birthday. It hadn't exactly been idyllic before that, with what were to him scary men watching them most of the time, his mother starting their fighting training with their first steps (OK, it had been mostly fun games for the first few years but he could fight well enough to take down multiple bigger opponents by the time he started school), and her and Auntie Em going away all the time... but he had Sammie, and Nora, Mom and Auntie Em, he even had Dad when he wasn't off at work, though he seemed to be there an awful lot of the time. But just after his eight birthday, Uncle Joe took Sammie away on one of his trips, and they never come back.

Life was empty for him without Sammie, and Auntie Em was crying most of the time up until she left on Sammie's birthday to go try and find her, and she didn't come back. Things got even worse after that, because Mr Graham, that big scary black man Mom and Dad worked for, came to the house and he and Mom were shouting at each other, then Mom went away on another trip, and _she_ didn't came back either. Dad spent _all_ of his time working and talking crazy after that, even more so after he'd snuck into his Dad's workroom that time and set off something on that computer with the 'Activate' prompt, until about a year later when they got up one morning and he was gone too. Uncle Bry and Auntie Di came and got them then because Dad had called Auntie Di before he left, but Auntie Di had explained in that no nonsense way of her's that she and Uncle Bry couldn't stay with them or Mr Graham and those other scary men would find them, but she promised to get Auntie Em to come and look after them... they'd pretty much been alone since Auntie Em and Mom left anyway...

* * *

Chuck shook his head in an attempt to dispel this trip down memory lane, because it never went well and he knew it... Auntie Di did as she promised, a couple of weeks later she brought Auntie Em back and they all moved from San Francisco down to Arcadia in Los Angeles with their new names (stupid names! Charles _Irving_ Bartowski? What sort of name was that? They only got to keep their first names, and even there they'd had to agree to be called Chuck and Ellie instead of Charlie and Nora to make it harder to find them. Eleanora became Eleanor Faye Bartowski and Auntie Em became their Aunt on their father's side, Emmeline Mary Bartowski, but he still thought that their new names didn't sound as stupid as his did) and ages too, because Ellie had been made just under two years older and he was made a few months over two years older.

Auntie Di had also made them a proposal. She explained that she'd just become a Major in the Air Force, but she was working for the Defence Clandestine Service and National Security Agency and with some friends' help (he smiled at the memory of Auntie Em snorting at that, then hastily explaining that Auntie Di had a lot of friends when they looked at her and getting glared at by Auntie Di), she was creating an intelligence group so that Auntie Em could work for her in secret, but Auntie Em couldn't do enough on her own to make that group work. Auntie Di knew that even then they were both every bit as brilliant as Mom and Dad, so she asked them if they'd work with Auntie Em so that they could make a group that did enough work to stop people asking questions about the money going into it, the money that would be paying all their bills. Chuck agreed after Ellie did, saying that they didn't really have a choice. Auntie Em looked angry at Auntie Di for asking them to do that, but she seemed to be angry at her sister a lot back then, so that wasn't unusual.

When Chuck asked how come Mister Graham and the others didn't just ask Auntie Di where they were Auntie Em laughed, but sat him down and explained that her Mama got pregnant before her Papa went away to war, and he only found out about her and married her Mama after he came home, so Auntie Di actually had a different name to her. She also explained that she wrote down that she came from somewhere else when she left home to go to MIT like his Daddy, because she was angry that they never bothered getting her name changed to match their's, but Auntie Di had gone to Harvard like the rest of the family, so there was actually nothing in their records to show that they were sisters and they never told anyone about it. She'd laughed again when Chuck nodded very seriously, saying that that made sense.

* * *

It hadn't been easy, going to school and working like grown ups for Auntie Di, but Auntie Di was right, they were all brilliant so Major Beckman's new Special Projects Group quickly came to be well regarded and much in demand. Then he got what he regarded as the best present ever for his tenth birthday in October Ninety One, because Mom came back, as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski! There was already enough demand for their work to justify an expansion of the group, so on paper it more than doubled in size, going from eleven people (Army and Navy identities for Chuck and Air Force, Army and Navy identities for Ellie, Auntie Em and Uncle Bry) to twenty four (Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force identities for all five of them and someone else on Auntie Di's team, John Casey).

They knew that they weren't getting the whole story of what happened when she was away, but from Mom's expression, and Auntie Em's too after they'd talked in private, Ellie wasn't sure that she _wanted_ to know the whole story. All they were told at the time was that Uncle Hartley had a different version of what Daddy did loaded into him to make him turn into someone else, Alexei Volkoff, and he was sent to Russia. Mom was sent after him to bring him home when he turned back into himself, but he didn't. Someone had also told him that she was a CIA spy sent to kill him, and who and where they and their father were, so she couldn't get away and come home for fear of someone coming to hurt them, not until Auntie Di and Uncle Bry got word to her that Daddy had disappeared and they were safe.

What she swore Emma, Di and Bry to secrecy about was the fact that Eleanor and Charles most probably had a half sister out there somewhere now. Volkoff had had his fun torturing and raping her when he heard that she was a CIA assassin, and she'd only managed to avoid being killed by getting him to confirm that she was in fact a KGB sleeper, Marjan Zaleska, who'd been sent to America when she was sixteen to get herself recruited into the intelligence community from university, and convince him that she'd changed sides because of the CIA's betrayal so she was loyal to him. She of course didn't tell him that she'd stopped being an active sleeper after she met Stefan Jaworski and they fell in love, but even though she managed to play him well enough to avoid having to have any more sex with him after that, she was already pregnant. They took the baby away at birth and she never saw it again, but she was in no state to face what had been forced into her by that animal like that anyway, Volkoff wasn't Hartley, he was a monster. Once the baby was born though, she'd had to keep convincing Volkoff that she was his loyal aide in order to stay alive and keep Stefan, Eleanor and Charles safe, but as soon as Di got word to her that they were all out of harm's way, she started making plans to get out of there as soon as she could. It was actually men from the Spetsnaz groups who made up the core of Volkoff's security forces who had helped her get away, because they respected her as a warrior and did not approve of what had been done to one who had proved themselves as she had.

* * *

As well as all the work they were doing (for both Auntie Di and school, because their cover story was that their parents were away working on the pipeline up in Alaska, but that hardly paid enough for them to live in Arcadia where the best schools were, so Ellie and Chuck would need to earn scholarships if they wanted to go to university, and Ellie only had three years to make a name for herself against stiff competition), they were using the resources of the intelligence group to search for Sammie and Dad, and Mom and Auntie Em were teaching them all the things they were best at, which meant a _lot_ of training. Chuck had heard Auntie Em crying to Mom sometimes about it not being right to take their childhoods away from them like this, but Mom always reminded her that it wasn't them who had taken Eleanor and Charles' childhoods away, nor Di either, it was Graham and those other bastards!

Over the next ten years until Ellie and Chuck finished university, they'd worked their arses off. Major Beckman's secretive Special Projects Group remained the hot property of the intelligence community, so much so that they more than doubled in size again (on paper anyway) and branched out from military intelligence because the FBI, ATF, DEA, US Marshals (for the witness protection program), and even the CIA had to avail themselves of the group's services to get the results they were after. Auntie Di, Uncle Bry and Uncle Roan also extended the training that Mom and Auntie Em gave Ellie and Chuck (and Anna, after she worked out the family secret), either by training them themselves, or getting them into training that shouldn't have been possible, like special operations training (even the SEALs' for Ellie and Chuck) and aviator training (up to supersonic jets), and they started going on special operations and intelligence missions with Mom, Uncle Bry, John and Uncle Roan, because part of their training had been how to make themselves look older, and convince everyone else that they actually looked younger than they were, their abilities helped with that as they were better than most of the others.

When they were starting Ellie and Chuck's weapons training, Auntie Di got the secret government contractors to come in and dig a basement and bunker under the house, then Mom contacted her friends in Russia, and about a month later she went out one night and came back with a truck that was packed with high end special operations weapons, ammunition and explosives. The majority of it was from Russia, but the best gear from the rest of the world was there too. John and Uncle Bry drooled when they saw what was there.

Ellie and Chuck had no trouble earning the scholarships they needed to get into university, as they were both the valedictorians for their years. Ellie went into medicine at UCLA in Ninety Four and got herself locked into the trauma and neurology tracks (because Chuck, Mom, Uncle Bry and John came back from the missions they went on with bullet wounds and other injuries all too often so she needed to look after them, and they'd found Dad after a few years but his brain was half fried by that thing he'd tried on himself after Chuck did without harming himself, so he was over in Washington as Stephen Jay Bartowski with a therapist who was one of Auntie Di's 'friends', but it would take more than therapy to fix him, so Ellie was studying to become a neurologist), and Chuck went into Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford in Ninety Seven. They were worried about Chuck going to Stanford, because there was always a chance that CIA might still be keeping an eye on San Francisco in hope that his father may go back, but Stanford was the best university which had offered him a scholarship and he took his looks mainly from his mother, so they were hoping to get away with it.

* * *

Of course, using the 'poor scholarship kid' cover meant that he had to take the allocated housing as well, and with Skip going to UCLA instead of Stanford, he didn't have a ready made room mate like Anna and Jill did, so he ended up sharing with a trust fund jock from Connecticut by the name of Bryce Larkin (though they found that this wasn't as random as it appeared when they looked into it after everything fell apart, because his family had used its influence to get him placed with the brightest of the scholarship kids in an attempt to get him the help he'd need to get decent grades).

Anna had been Chuck's best friend ever since they moved to Arcadia, because the little pocket rocket was every bit as brilliant as she was feisty, and she was into martial arts too, but while everyone thought that they'd been boyfriend and girlfriend since their early teens, this was just an act to cover up the fact that _Anna_ had a girlfriend, Jill. They had experimented with sex when Anna's hormones were kicking in as she was moving into her teens (she didn't know that Chuck was over a year and a half younger than her), but she'd found that while she loved Chuck and he certainly had talents, she wasn't into him that way at all, as she found that it was girls that she was attracted to. When she tentatively broached the matter with their new friend Jill (because she was worried that she might disappear like Lou had), she was delighted to find that Jill felt the same way, but therein lay a different problem, because Anna was from a traditional Chinese family, while Jill was from a strict Christian family, so neither would _ever_ accept their daughters being homosexuals! The faith issue would just add to the problem.

The solution to that problem actually presented itself when the girls were crying on his and Skip's shoulders about it in Chuck's room…. Skip was commiserating with the girls, because he was in much the same position, being gay himself, and that made Anna suddenly sit up and look at Jill in Skip's arms, then turn to look up at Chuck with a hopeful expression. "Chuckles, you're the only one here who isn't gay, but we both know that there's only one girl for you. You know that I'll keep helping you look for her for as long as it takes, but until you _do_ find your Sammie, do you think…. is there any chance that you could pretend to be _my_ boyfriend? I'm sure that we won't have any problem convincing my family and everyone else that I'm your girlfriend because they think that already, so if Jill and Skippy could do the same, no-one should ever find out that we aren't straight."

Chuck smiled, kissing her on the head and giving her a squeeze, then looked at the others. "What do you guys think? Can you pull off being boyfriend, girlfriend?"

Jill and Skip looked at each other and nodded eagerly before turning back to him and Skip answered. "Sure we can, but what about you Chuck? You're the only one who isn't getting anything out of this!"

Chuck shook his head with a smile. "Sure I am! Like Anna said, there's only one girl for me, so this way I get a pint sized pit bull to scare off any other girls who might decide that they want something from me. And besides, this one and you guys are my best friends, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't help you?"

Anna elbowed him for the 'pint sized pit bull' crack, but kissed him for doing this for them, and that was how it was up until they got to Stanford. There was a slight change when they got there though, because they were met by religious head cases up on their soap boxes, ranting about homosexuality being a sin _and_ all the jocks leering at Jill. This frightened the girls, Jill especially, so Anna asked Chuck if Jill could be his pretend girlfriend instead of her while they were there. He agreed because they wouldn't be doing anything more than kissing and cuddling to keep up the act in public anyway and he would still be protecting both of them, so he had himself a new 'girlfriend' at Stanford.

* * *

'Uncle' Jeff took their things up to Palo Alto for them in his 'work' van, because Chuck drove the girls up in 'Anna's Lancer (even Jill didn't know that this was more Chuck's car than Anna's, because Anna was a part of their group before she met Jill, and she kept the secrets that were entrusted with her, even from her girlfriend. Anna's parents had agreed to buy her a car for when she went to university, but didn't argue when she took her American boyfriend and his Uncle John instead of her father to find the car she wanted, as they accepted that the two of them knew more about cars than he did. They had had a few words to say when she came back with the Lancer instead of the little hatchback that she was supposed to buy, but it didn't cost them any more than the hatchback would have and they just put it down to her being influenced by her boyfriend. What they didn't realise was that the Lancer actually had a full works spec Evo IV drivetrain, brakes and suspension underneath it that cost many times what they paid. The Lancer looked tame enough on the outside to be believable as a university student's car, but had enough performance to give them an effective getaway car for missions, because Chuck and Anna would still be working for Auntie Di while they were up at Stanford.)

Of course, Anna took advantage of the fact that Chuck couldn't say anything in front of Jill and was pointing to the massive airship hangars and asking what they were, and what this place was as they were passing Moffett Field. She did feel a _little_ guilty about that, because she knew that Chuck was pissed off that they'd had to spend over six hours driving up when they'd bought one of the hangers there, cleaned it up and set it up so that they had facilities there, as well as having room for half of their planes in the hangar... Most notably their Cessna CitationJet, which could have cut the trip down to about an hour door to door... And after all, it was her girlfriend who made the ruse necessary, but it was just too much fun to wind him up and they'd been doing this since they were twelve.

As well as taking their things up, Jeff was supposedly there to look for a place to set himself up in Palo Alto, somewhere he, Chuck and Anna could do their work, because he'd be staying up there to support Chuck, using a tech services business (Charlemagne Computers Etc) to explain what he was doing there. 'Uncle' Jeff was actually Jefferson Barnes, better known as the hacker Rosco. Given the fact that he was only offered two alternatives after Chuck uncovered his activities on government computer systems and tracked him down so that John could capture him, work with Chuck, Anna and Skip on the cyber side of the group, or disappear into a black site somewhere, never to be seen again... it hadn't been a hard choice for him to make. Having the chance to work with the Piranha and the Lotus (and to a lesser degree Skippy) was something Jeff wasn't likely to pass up anyway, because they were up there with the best in the game, which Chuck had proven by how easily he'd caught him because Rosco was one of the hacker elite too. Jeff had been part of their group for over two years now, and he still regarded being caught by Chuck as the best mistake he'd ever made.

* * *

The girls had fun winding up Chuck about the fact that even without Skip coming to Stanford, he _still_ had a gay room mate, after they met Bryce when they were helping him move into his room. That was aggravating, because he didn't need any complications and he was trying to concentrate on how they were going to get Jeff set up quick enough to prevent a work backlog, but he wasn't too worried about Bryce because he knew that he'd be able to handle anything the guy may try, if he did. They had a bigger worry anyway, and that was probably why the girls were trying to wind him up, to get their minds off that.

While they were moving the girls' things into their dorm, they had heard lots of talk about girls getting raped in their rooms, especially girls who were thought to be lesbians. There were already girls packing up and going home because of those attacks, before classes had even started, and when Anna asked some of the girls what the campus police were doing about it, she was told "Nothing!".

This obviously frightened Anna and Jill so Chuck tried to calm them while they were helping him move into his room by pointing out that Uncle Jeff was already looking for a place to live as he was thinking of moving up here for the work opportunities, so they'd just get him to look for a bigger place and think up something to tell their parents. That did lower their panic levels, but they begged him to stay with them that night so they'd feel safer. Anna smirked at him, with a subtle nod in his room mate's direction as she whispered. "Maybe you'll feel safer that way too Chuckles."

He swatted her on the behind with a smile and said that of course he'd stay with them, getting a kiss from Jill when she remembered that she was supposed to be his girlfriend. They had discussed the fact that him being as affectionate with Anna as he was with his 'girlfriend' much of the time would probably have many people thinking that it was actually a three way relationship, but agreed that that would serve their purposes better anyway, so they weren't worried.

With Chuck's skills, it wasn't difficult for him to slip into the girls' dorm and hence Anna and Jill's room without being noticed later that night. The three of them had had so many sleepovers over the years that the girls had no compunctions about getting undressed and changed in front of Chuck, sure they knew he was straight, but they also knew that he was a perfect gentleman and that he'd spend the rest of his life if need be looking for the one who'd been taken out of his life when he was eight, they'd heard that story from the whole family and Anna had seen his anguish when he couldn't find any sign of Sammie. To Anna and Jill, Chuck and Skip were as good as one of the girls, so they just got ready for bed and settled down for the night after a round of good night hugs and kisses.

Chuck was woken in the early hours of the morning by sounds out in the hall, so he leapt out of bed and woke the girls. Jill was terrified, because she couldn't see how they could fight off the groups of men she'd been told would be coming for them, but Chuck quickly swapped places with Anna when she spat out "Chuck, the girls were saying that they're targeting lesbians, get in here with Jill and make it look like you're making out! Maybe they'll leave us alone!" as she clambered out of bed. He was surprised when Jill ripped her top off and threw on the floor then fell on him in a heated make out session while Anna hopped into the other bed, but before he could say anything the door of their room burst open and at least half a dozen big, burly figures in ski masks rushed in.

As distracting as Jill was being, Chuck didn't miss a word of what was said as they entered. From what they said, the first ones in were obviously the ones in charge.

"Shit, I thought she said that they were dykes?"

"Who cares? Looks like the beanpole's warmed that one up for us, which one do you wanna do first?"

"This one looks ready, I'll take her and you can start with the Chink…."

At that point the clock radio that Chuck had grabbed from the bedside table cut off his words as it smashed into his face, the heavy base of the lamp took out the next guy and the vase the one after him. Then Chuck swept Jill off him and rolled out of bed, snatching up the solid wood chair that was sitting against the wall and using it on the others. They were all down in under thirty seconds, and the ones he took out with the chair were in by far the worst shape because they all had shattered arms, legs and ribs.

Chuck went to the nearest conscious one, yanking off his ski mask and grabbing him by the hair.

"Who's 'she'?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Your buddy said 'she' told you that the girls were dykes, who's 'she'?"

"Fuck you! I'm not telling you any….."

His words were lost in a scream as Chuck grabbed the spot where he'd shattered the guy's leg with the chair and squeezed.

When he stopped screaming, Chuck repeated the question. "Who. Is. She?"

The guy wasn't about to take any more of that, so he frantically pointed out the door. " _HER! HER!_ "

Chuck turned to see a severe looking young woman with a worried expression (because this obviously hadn't gone the way it was supposed to) standing there, fully dressed at two in the morning when everyone else was in their sleepwear. When she saw him turn to look at her she tried to run but the other girls crowding around the door had heard what the would-be rapist said too and grabbed her. They'd heard quite enough for there to be no doubt in their minds that this bitch had been setting girls up to be raped just because she didn't approve of what she _thought_ their life choices were. They didn't see that girl being a lesbian, not with the way she and her boyfriend were almost naked and had obviously been going at, and they knew for a fact that some of the other girls who'd been raped weren't either, but whether they were or not was immaterial, that bitch had been setting other girls up to be gang raped, and some of those girls had been their friends, so there was no way that they were letting her get away!

He knew that someone would have called the campus police by now, but Chuck didn't trust them at all, so he called Auntie Di, telling her what happened and she told him to try and stall until she could get an FBI team there.

With that, Chuck went back to the girls, Jill had her top back on and Anna was comforting her. As he walked up, Jill stepped forward to embrace him and he kissed her, whispering in her ear "Remember, I'm your boyfriend." She nodded and kissed him, and then he reached out to pull Anna into the embrace, kissing her on the forehead, whispering "And you were in your own bed if anyone asks." Anna nodded too, hugging him.

By the time the campus police arrived, Chuck had pulled a T shirt on and some of the girls who'd been raped had come in and said that they were sure that these were the bastards who'd raped them, while others identified the would-be rapists as all being on the university's football team after their ski masks were pulled off.

Things went pretty much as Chuck expected with the campus police, as they said that these boys had just been playing around doing a harmless panty raid and tried to drag Chuck out of there in his underwear, telling him that _he_ was facing multiple counts of grievous bodily harm, attempted murder, unprovoked assault and anything else they could think of. At that the other girls pushed their way into the room and started shouting at them about all the rapes that had been occurring but the campus cops just said that there was no evidence that any of these boys had had anything to do with that and threatened them to try and get them out of the way.

This bickering was enough to keep the campus cops tied up until the FBI arrived though, and Chuck smiled in relief to see John and Uncle Bry walk in. Auntie Di must have had them waiting at Moffett Field in case of trouble, but whatever the reason he was just glad to see them. Chuck wasn't sure why John was putting on a southern accent, but it was hard not to laugh as he drawled "You better check yourself there boy! Did your Mama hit you with the stupid stick or somethin'? Trying to tell the _FBI_ that we don't have any authority here?" when that jumped up security guard tried to tell them to get out because the campus police had this under control.

With the proper authorities there, the other girls started shouting about the rapes that had been going on and how this bitch had been setting girls up to be raped and the campus cops had been sweeping it all under the carpet. Casey's expression turned very grim at that and he brusquely told the campus cops to get out, but wait outside the building, because he'd be angry if they made him track them down, that was all it took to make them scamper out of there.

The would-be rapists were taken to hospital to be treated and were kept there under guard, being questioned and having samples being taken from them for DNA tests, and the woman who'd sent them to Anna and Jill's room was taken into custody and questioned too. The next day samples were taken from the rest of their team and they were questioned as well, along with the other university teams. Some of the players tried to argue, but they buckled very quickly when faced with a very angry John Casey and Bryan Mills (both of whom had daughters who would themselves be going to university inside ten years).

It took a couple of months for the real police (with the FBI and Colonel Beckman's Special Projects Group's help) to root out everyone who'd been involved in the rapes themselves and setting girls up to be raped, and more than a few people around the university were complaining and threatening retribution because a number of the university's first string players ended up in jail as a result of the investigation (how dare those bitches destroy their football team with their lies because the boys wanted to have a bit of fun?), along with a number of the religious fanatics who'd been targeting girls to be raped. A number of others (including many of the campus police and the ones making threats) who they didn't have enough evidence on to make criminal charges stick but were obviously guilty as sin were permanently banished from the university. The women of the university felt a little safer after that, but those bastards hadn't been the only predators on the campus so they still had to be careful, and for that matter the anti-homo crowd were still there too.

It hadn't taken long for them to get the purchase of a house through (seeing as it had been done before they got there), and get a $2.4 Million settlement out of the university for fostering an culture of rapes, hate crimes and attempted intimidation by the campus police to cover them up, and to have very public charges of false arrest against the Chancellor dropped to officially pay for it. They had only asked for half that at first, but Roan (as their family lawyer Herman Goldstein, and himself actually, as that was who and what he he'd been before he joined the CIA) gleefully doubled it as planned because of the threats and abuse being hurled at them, and thanked them for upping his fee for him. When they threatened to cancel Chuck's scholarship, Roan's smile lit up the room as he said. "Oh please do! That will give us ample grounds to double the settlement, and therefore my fee, _again_!" Needless to say, the Chancellor shut up the idiot who'd threatened that quick smart and got him out of there before he could cost the university any more money. While they had them on the ropes, they got the Chancellor to officially waive the pre-requisites and have both Chuck and Anna accepted into Stanford's MBA program, seeing as he 'now' had the money to pay for it.

The house they'd bought just off campus had four bedrooms and a study, and a good sized garage too. Anna and Jill shared one room of course, but Anna kept most of her things in the 'spare' bedroom that was kept for John or Uncle Bry's use when they were in town on a mission, so that if her or Jill's parents came to see them, she could quickly move in there. Them staying in a house off campus had easily been explained away by their being attacked in their dorm room, and they told their parents that they'd asked Chuck to stay with them that night because they were frightened, with good reason obviously, after hearing all those stories about rapes, and Chuck had gotten a false arrest settlement that was enough to pay for the house. His uncle being there was explained as him having seen that there weren't many tech services companies in Palo Alto when he helped them move up there, so he'd moved up there to try and get a slab of the services market while it was wide open, and that having another man in the house made the girls feel safer after being attacked like that.

* * *

The fact that they'd gotten twice as much as they'd supposedly planned from the university, gave Chuck an excuse to buy something fun, a bike, or rather four bikes. The four Harleys in the garage all had the same core setup, big bore RB Racing ORCA TC126 mills with their fuel injection, engine management and 2 into 1 exhaust setups, RBR's chain drive conversion swingarms, and uprated brakes and suspension. While the core setup was the same though, Chuck's bike had extras like nitrous oxide and such that pushed it further than the ones that John, Jeff and Bry normally used. They all looked like the sort of thing that guys put together in their garage (as even up there they had to pay lip service to their cover life), and in truth Chuck had done a fair bit of the work himself (with John Casey's help, strangely enough, wrenching on the bikes in the garage together was probably the closest they'd ever come to bonding off mission), but he'd also spent over eighty thousand with RBR getting them to the point where they could have some serious fun with them.

Unfortunately, the terms of that settlement dictated strict secrecy, which meant that to keep up appearances Chuck had to officially stay with the allocated housing, so he tried to get Bryce to cover for him, using the argument that Jill's family were strict Christians so they'd go ballistic if they knew that she was sleeping with him. For all his other shortcomings though, Bryce was right up there when it came to manipulation and blackmail, so the deal Chuck had to agree to to get him to cover up the fact that he was staying with his good Christian girlfriend most nights was spending at least one night a week and coming around at least two other nights to help him get through, or at least four or five visits of an hour or more a week to help him. While he didn't bother telling the blackmailing douche, Chuck decided then and there that it would be four visits of no more than one hour each week, at times that suited him, and he'd be staying at the house unless he absolutely _had_ to make an appearance in the dorms, he wasn't going to spend a minute more than he had to with that slug!

Having John and Bry turn up as FBI Agents in the middle of the night like that was something they had to explain to Jill though, to stop her talking about it and prompting more questions. They showed her enough proof for her to accept that they _were_ real FBI agents but luckily, unlike Anna, Jill knew nothing about all their other law enforcement, intelligence and military qualifications and identities. She had no trouble accepting that Bry at least was a close friend of the family who was trying to look out for Chuck, because she'd seen him and Emma together in unguarded moments at the house. She also accepted that their being there wasn't really authorised, strictly speaking, so talking about it would get them into trouble, and she was grateful enough to keep quiet about it so they got out of a potentially sticky situation without too much drama.

* * *

Meanwhile, down in San Diego, the person who Chuck, Emma and the rest of the family had been searching for for nearly eight years had put her foot down. Sammie (or rather Jenny Burton as she was currently) was fifteen, but all of her records said that she was seventeen and she had no trouble convincing anyone of that. After nearly eight years of being dragged through nearly every sleazy hole in the country, and more than a few over the border…. being chased, propositioned, fondled, felt up and nearly raped more times than she wanted to remember by dirty old and not so old men, she'd given her father an ultimatum….. Either give up the con game, stay in one place and go straight for a year so that she could complete her final year of school to get the education credits she needed to go to university, or they'd be going their separate ways here and now!

Uncle Joe (or Jack Burton as he now was) had no doubt that his daughter could convince some nice people to take her in for a year to do as she wished, because even though he'd never admit it out loud, she was far better than he ever was, she could make people do just about anything she wanted. That was why he couldn't afford to let her go, he'd never make a fraction of what they did without her planning the gigs and handing the marks the way she did, and he'd most probably be in the pen within a few months as well, so he swore blind that he'd do as she asked without blinking an eye.

Of course, Jack had no intention of honouring that promise, he just said that to stall for time and stop her leaving. Jenny knew that, but even if she was one of the few women on the planet who was totally immune to her father's charms, she couldn't help hoping that just this once, he'd do as he promised.

 **A/N: The actresses who played General Beckman and Sarah's mother in the series are both about the same height and have similar features, so disbelief shouldn't need to be suspended** _too_ **much to believe that they could be sisters. ;^)**


	2. School Daze

**Chapter 2: School Daze**

* * *

 **There have a few minor changes with early names and such in the first chapter, but nothing significant.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney princess tale.**

Chuck had always avoided the over-privileged trust fund jocks like Larkin back at High School, so he hadn't seen how they just expected to get everything they wanted as their due. That was why he couldn't understand how Larkin could straight out blackmail him when he asked him to cover for him when he was staying with his girlfriend who'd been traumatised by being attacked in her dorm room by a gang of serial rapists, and then act as if he was doing him a favour by holding up his side of the deal.

Unfortunately, Chuck had his mother's temper and he was having a hard time holding it in as he stormed out of 'their' room to go see the girls. Anna had seen him like this often enough before though and knew that he had to do something to let off steam or he'd blow, so she didn't ask any questions when he asked to borrow 'her' car, she just handed him the keys, asked him to be careful with a kiss and shut Jill up when she went to say something. She had to explain that kiss to her girlfriend after he left, but Chuck had been her best friend and anchor since she met him over six years ago, and in many ways he meant more to her than her girlfriend of four years did. While she loved Jill and would hate to lose her, she wasn't prepared to lose the world she'd gotten to be part of thanks to Chuck.

As part of that explanation, she drew her over to the window to watch him drive off. Luckily the street was deserted at that moment, because Jill watched in shock as the Lancer got up to at least a hundred miles an hour in the short distance it took to get out of sight. Once it was gone Anna sat her down to explain that as wonderful as Chuck was, he had one hell of a temper, and someone must have done something to make him really angry (she had a good idea who but didn't say). She told her that Chuck was a drift racer, and a damned good one, but he was on probation so if he owned a car the cops would be all over him. When he was like this though, the only thing that could calm him down was to take a fast car up into the hills and let off steam (or a mission, but she wasn't going into _that,_ because for all her intelligence, Jill was too much of a ditzy valley girl to trust with their secrets). That was why she'd gotten the Lancer and let him modify it, so he would be able to let off steam up here where he couldn't borrow Ellie's Summit. She nodded at the look Jill gave her at that. "Yeah, Ellie let him modify her car too so that he could get a release when he needed it, mind you we've had a lot of fun with it too because that little car of her's is damned fast now, and so is my Lancer as you just saw."

Jill was still dubious about that kiss, but accepted Anna's promise that there wasn't anything like that going on between her and Chuck. Anna conceded that they _had_ had sex before she met her, but that was what convinced her that she wasn't into guys, because she knew that if it didn't work with _him_ , it wouldn't work with any guy. She also admitted that she'd experimented with the other girl in their group back then too, but she and her family had up and left town, left the country actually, straight after that, that was why she'd been so tentative with her at first.

* * *

That incident helped them keep things under wraps actually, because Chuck was also doing degrees at MIT by distance learning as Charles Carmichael, and he had to be there for some sessions and exams. Auntie Di set up supersonic jet ferry flights (F111s, F15s, F16s and later F22s for his Karol Zaleski Air Force Pilot identity and F5s, F14s and F18s for his Charles Carmichael Naval Aviator identity) between San Francisco and Boston whenever he had to be at MIT so that he could get back and forth across the country quick enough, and they often used the letting off steam excuse to explain the times he took off in the Lancer or on his Harley for that. They also used that sometimes when they had missions, but they had to be more creative when Anna was part of the mission, and for the times when Auntie Di scheduled flights for her to keep her hours up (Anna was a Naval Aviator too as Anna Wang, and an Air Force Pilot as Enye Fan, while Ellie's main pilot identities were Eleanora Zaleska as a Naval Aviator and Eleonore Charlemagne as an Air Force Pilot, Mary's were Naval Aviator Maryam Krieger and Air Force Pilot Marie Lestrange and John's were Naval Aviator Martin Harris and Air Force Pilot Alex Coburn, all five of them had Army Aviator and Marine Naval Aviator identities as well, but those were mainly for helicopters and the like). Auntie Di was organising similar ferry flights for Ellie because she was still doing degrees at Harvard too.

At least all they had to come up with to explain why Anna was working with Chuck and Jeff at the house was that Chuck had used what little was left over from the settlement after they bought the house to get his Harley, so they needed to work to pay the bills and Anna was working with them to pay her and Jill's share. Chuck, Anna and Skip had been making extra money 'hacking for profit' when Jill came into the group (Anna, Skip and Lou were the school's resident nerds when Chuck first arrived in Arcadia and they clicked with him pretty much straight away, but they'd wanted in when he tried to stop their questions about the work he was doing by saying that he was just making a bit of extra money by doing hacking jobs for people his uncle knew. Being as bright as she was, Anna soon worked out what the family _really_ did from what they were working on and Lou and Skip didn't take much longer, which led to them being formally accepted into the Special Projects Group, working with Chuck, in their early teens), and they'd always worked together at Chuck's house because his family never asked what they were doing, so it was easy enough to spin this as an extension of that. The fact that Jill could never understand their 'techno-babble' as she called it and usually didn't hang around when they started talking that way had always made it easier to cover up what they were actually doing.

While Skip, and Jeff when he joined, were very much a part of the cyber and to a lesser degree analysis side of the group though, they never got into the physical side of what they did the way that Anna did. As soon as she found out that Chuck and Ellie were into martial arts too, she wanted to be part of what they were doing, and even if she wasn't quite up to their standard she was good enough to keep up, so they gave in and got her included in the special operations and operative and flight training that Chuck and Ellie were getting. Mary and Bry gave Skip and Jeff enough combat and weapons training to make sure that they could look after themselves and they learned how to handle all the vehicles that the group used, they even learned how to fly some of the planes and helicopters they commonly used and were certified on them, but they weren't part of the more serious training and didn't do more than field support on missions. Skip's role expanded a little after Chuck, Anna and Jeff went to Palo Alto though because he was the only one they had left in Los Angeles on the cyber and tech support side.

* * *

Larkin was bright enough to see that what Chuck did to stop the dorm rapes when he first came to Stanford had made him well liked and respected among the female and gay friendly parts of the university population, so while he rarely let him out of his part of the deal that he'd blackmailed him into, he _did_ throw himself into playing the role of Chuck's bestie who he shared a room with most of the time, and made a point of dragging Chuck and his girlfriend and gal pal into the nerdier groups on campus with him. While the idea of being Bryce Larkin's bestie turned Chuck's stomach, this act _did_ help shore up the stupid cover he was forced to live with, so he played along in public, and most of the time he was alone with Larkin too (luckily Larkin's narcissism was strong enough for him to swallow the act, and the times that Chuck couldn't keep it up, he just put it down to being out of sorts because of his hormonal girlfriend because someone like Larkin never took the time to understand women's issues, so he took that at face value).

The benefit of this charade was that Chuck could live at the house with Jeff, Anna and Jill nearly all the time, which in turn meant that he was free to go back to putting in at least six or seven hours' work a night (both he and Ellie had inherited their mother's trait of rarely needing more than an hour or two's sleep as well as her eidetic memory, so working twenty or more hours a day wasn't too difficult for them), and this helped them catch up on the group's backlog of work fairly quickly.

Hacking into the phone and power companies' systems to cover up the unusually heavy phone and power usage for a household of four people was child's play for Chuck (literally, he was only ten when he first did it for their house in Arcadia), and it meant that he, Mom and Ellie could be continuously connected by phone and computer while they worked together through the night. They'd usually have Auntie Di and Auntie Em (and Jeff, Anna and Skip) on as well for a few hours a night up until Auntie Di dropped off to go to bed, and then she would come back on a few hours after Auntie Em and the others dropped off when she got up in the morning in Washington. While working this hard would have wiped out 'ordinary humans' as Auntie Em liked to say (because it pissed off Mom), it wasn't really a problem for them (the Terminators as she called them, usually misquoting the movie after she'd had a few drinks 'The Terminators can't be reasoned with, they can't be bargained with… and they absolutely will not stop. Ever!', which Mom and Ellie said just proved that she spent _way_ too much time watching those silly movies with Chuck).

As gruelling as those hours were, it was the only way they could keep up with the workloads that Auntie Di threw at them to ensure that the Special Projects Group stayed at the top of the heap for the intelligence groups. As the whole family knew though, Chuck's first priority was the search for Sammie, it was the first thing he looked at when he got up and the last thing he checked before he went to bed. If for some reason he wasn't at home, he'd call either the house in Palo Alto or Arcadia to check for any new hits.

All in all, this setup worked quite well for them, Chuck, Ellie, Anna and Skip were doing well in their degrees at Stanford, MIT, Harvard and UCLA, the Special Projects Group was staying on top of the intelligence game, and he and sometimes Ellie and Anna were going with Uncle Bry, Mom, Uncle Roan and John on special ops and intelligence operations with the SEALs, Special Forces, Marine Recon, Rangers, DIA, FBI, CIA, ATF, US Marshals, DEA, Coast Guard, it made for an exciting and rewarding life.

* * *

Down in San Diego, Jenny Burton wasn't having anywhere near as good a time. She'd wanted to fly under the radar for this final year of high school, and also dissuade her father from trying to talk her into 'just one quick job', so she totally changed her look before she enrolled at the school. She got god-awful braces put on her teeth (real ones, which couldn't be removed without a dentist), just about ruined her hair making it look terrible and threw out any nice clothes she had to get the dorky band geek look locked in. The way she saw it, if she was hidden away among the nerds, she'd be ignored by the popular crowd, and her final results when she came out on top when they graduated (as she fully intended to do, to get her best shot at university), it would be less of a surprise too.

The problem was that that didn't work out the way she planned. She fitted in with the overachieving nerds fine (Charlie, Nora and Uncle Stefan had prepared her well for that and it sometimes made her homesick for that house), and she was near the top of all her classes from the start without much effort, but the popular crowd didn't ignore her the way she'd planned, they made sure that they made her life hell. That bitch Heather Chandler was behind it, but they all bought into it, especially that pig Dick Duffy!

She was pretty sure she knew what Chandler's game was, because while she was a horrendous bitch and slag, she was actually fairly smart, so she was almost certainly trying to ensure that she got the number one spot and got to be valedictorian _without_ having to work hard for them. Jenny could see her prodding that pig Duffy into harassing her, and quite likely if that didn't work raping her as well, so that she'd leave the school, which would of course leave the way clear for _her_ because none of the other smart girls would risk getting in her way after they saw what happened to Jenny.

It wouldn't be hard for Chandler to get Duffy to do something like that either because it was just the sort of thing he'd do if he thought of it, if he could think. She really couldn't understand how he made it onto the football team, because he was so dumb she was surprised that he could run without tripping over his feet, or more likely his tongue as soon as he saw a girl in a tight shirt or a short skirt. That was one thing she was glad of with her current look, all her clothes were so baggy you could hardly tell there was a girl under them so most of the jocks ignored her, but that wouldn't stop Duffy once Chandler wound him up, he'd go after old Missus Smith in the lunch shop if Chandler got him going and asked him to.

She wasn't worried about being able to stop Duffy, between what Auntie Mary had taught her as a kid and what she'd gotten others to teach her over the last eight years she could handle him easily, but she doubted that she'd be able to do so without someone seeing it, and she probably wouldn't be able to stop herself damaging him when it got to that because the pig made her so angry, and either of those things would put a black mark on her record and probably make the cops look at them. That would be enough to ruin her plans of getting to university, because her father had spent just about all the money they'd made so she was going to need a scholarship to get into university and with only one year to do it, she'd have to stay squeaky clean to get one.

* * *

Jenny was handling the situation fairly well, she'd backed off enough for it to look like she wasn't at the top unless you knew about everything else she was doing behind the scenes, and a little gentle persuasion with the teachers 'Please don't tell the others, they're so mean to me when they get jealous!' was enough to keep that under wraps. Chandler looked smug when she thought that she'd scared her enough to take herself out of contention, but at least she'd stopped prodding Duffy to go after her so that was working. Then, just as the end was in sight, with only two months to graduation, her father screwed her over!

Her internal dialogue as she drove past their house with hardly a pause after she saw all the ATF and over government cars outside was brutal. 'You didn't _really_ expect him to keep his promise did you? Idiot! You were so fuckin' stupid to ever give him the chance to screw you over like this! You should have just left without a word, you know he wouldn't have been able to find you if you'd done that!'

This went on until she reached the spot where she was hoping to find one of their emergency money caches, if her father hadn't cleaned the last of them out yet she'd collect whatever was left and do what she should have done last July, set herself up with a decent family and finish high school. She was surprised to find that the money _was_ still there, but just as she was about to take it and go she heard a noise.

She spun and threw the knife she'd just used to open the box the cache was buried in with one smooth motion, but the moment she saw who was standing there, she regretted throwing to scare the man rather than kill him, because it was Mister Graham, the one who'd been Uncle Stefan and Auntie Mary's boss, and Mama's too sometimes from what she heard Mama saying to them when she was supposedly asleep.

From the way Graham was talking, he obviously didn't think that she'd recognise him, which presumably meant that he didn't know that she'd acquired Mama's eidetic memory, possibly that he didn't know that Mama had one for that matter. Unfortunately, Graham was bright enough to realise that his banter wasn't working and cut to the chase, she was going to work for him because he had her father and he'd make sure he suffered if she didn't do exactly as he said.

Once again, he read more than she wanted from her reaction, because he saw that the idea of her father suffering didn't bother her that much so he upped the ante. "If you don't care what happens to your father, what about your mother? We've made sure she doesn't go anywhere since your father took you away and we caught her trying to go after you! Didn't you ever think to wonder why you couldn't find her or the Jaworskis? Unlike your father, we need to keep her in good enough shape to work, but there are plenty of ways to punish her without effecting her ability to work!"

The smug, self satisfied smile on his face said that he knew he had her then, and he proceeded to tell her exactly what she was going to do. She was going to go back to the house and she'd be staying there with CIA handlers until she graduated, _as valedictorian_. She'd be going to one of the Ivy League universities back east…. "Harvard, I think!" and she'd do damned well there or her mother would pay. As well as her academic requirements, her handlers up until she graduated would be preparing her for the three month intensive boot camp she would be doing between her high school graduation and starting at Harvard. She'd have another handler at Harvard, and she'd meet every target she was given in her extra curricular training as well or her mother would pay…

When he finished he looked at her. "Do you understand what is required of you or do I need to use your father to convince you? I realise that your mother is a better incentive but I don't have her right here like I do your father."

He just smiled again as she bit out "Yes, I understand." because he could see that she desperately wanted to kill him, and could probably make a good attempt at it, but she was too afraid of anything happening to her mother to risk it.

Just to twist the knife a little more, Graham buried any official mention of Jack Burton's arrest and conviction, but made sure that word got around town about it so that the popular crowd would make her life a living hell at school, as well as her handlers making her life a living hell at home. She was working harder than she ever had before to try and keep Mama safe, but she was worried about what Graham's retribution would be after she put the male handler through the door when he came into the bathroom while she was having a shower and tried to attack her, he was just replaced though and Graham didn't say a word about it. The female handler actually looked as though she felt guilty about not having prevented the bathroom incident.

Jenny did derive some small satisfaction from the reactions of Chandler and the rest of the popular crowd when she swept the floor with them, topping every class to become valedictorian, and the independent auditor their parents insisted come in to expose her cheating couldn't find anything to dispel the evidence that their children were obviously inferior to her. Unfortunately she got a phone call from Graham to remind her what would happen if she gave the speech that she wanted to, so she just gave a short cookie cutter speech and walked off the stage.

She was immediately hustled into a car and driven straight to the airport to be put on a plane to Virginia, where she spent the next three months getting into shape and learning all the core tools of the trade for a spy (though that went much further than they'd expected because she already knew quite a bit of the subject matter, and mastered what she didn't faster than any other recruits could too, so she was well into the advanced subjects by the time she went to Harvard), and was given a total makeover to make her into this 'Sarah Walker' who Graham had told her she was going to be from now on when he caught her. It was obvious that Graham wasn't pleased when he saw that the new look they'd come up with was actually a slightly older version of the real her, because he'd wanted to force her to turn into someone else, but he had to accept that forcing them to make permanent changes to her appearance when Samantha Blake's true look would ultimately serve him better would be counter productive, so he just turned and walked out. Sarah knew that he'd find some way to make her pay for the triumphant smile she couldn't hold in at that point, she just hoped that he wouldn't take it out on Mama.

* * *

The family were forcefully reminded of Chuck's temper after he got home from his first year at Stanford, because he exploded one night when he was going back over full results of the searches he'd been running for Sammie, trying to find something he'd missed. For all the danger of dealing with him when he was in this state, Ellie was in his room almost before the remains of the cup he'd thrown across the room hit the floor. Unfortunately she couldn't decipher what it was on the computer screen that had set him off, so she had to wait for him to calm down enough to tell her. When he did, she turned to look at Auntie Em, and that look was enough to have Auntie Em with them at the screen in seconds.

What Chuck had found was, for want of a better description, a _hole_ in the results of the searches for Sammie. His search engines had discovered the indicators that Chuck had coded them for, but there was nothing there, as if the information had been carefully removed. When he saw that he started digging deeper, and even for him, looking for what isn't there was difficult, but eventually he found what had been removed. Back in April, an inept conman by the name of Jack Burton had gotten himself caught by the authorities down in San Diego, but it wasn't the local cops who caught him, it had been a federal agency operation. This was what convinced Chuck that he was on the right track, because Uncle Joe had always been lazy, so nearly every identity that they'd found for him in the last nine years had the same initials, JB. Then there was the fact that people had been talking about him being taken by the ATF and FBI, but there was nothing in their systems about it _and_ the man had had an eighteen year old daughter who mysteriously disappeared straight after she gave her valedictorian speech.

Chuck was sure that this was Uncle Joe, and more importantly Sammie, but the big questions were how did they both disappear, _separately_ , and why was there _nothing_ in the ATF and FBI records. Unfortunately he was pretty sure he knew the answer to that last question, and that didn't bode well, because everything was pointing to the CIA. He got into the CIA's systems without too much trouble (as if they could keep the Piranha out!), but he couldn't find any references to Sammie or the arrest there either, so he looked for Uncle Joe in the one place he'd be if he was still alive, the prison systems, and at last he found something.

Auntie Di's point that him going in to rip the answers and throat out of Uncle Joe wouldn't help them, and worse, it would just tip off whoever had Sammie, _her niece!_ that they were searching for her was valid if not tactful, so Chuck backed down and conceded that John, as the only one they had in the country that the CIA wasn't hunting for and the most likely to keep his temper was probably a better choice, then he almost threw John out the door to go and do it.

Unfortunately, when John went in as an FBI Agent to question Jack Burton in prison, he didn't any useful information out of him, and _he_ almost lost his temper with the douche. They'd told him that Joe Blake didn't give a shit about anything but himself, but John was still shocked when Jack made it clear that he neither knew nor cared what had happened to his sixteen year old daughter, his only agenda was finding a way to get himself out of there! In the end, John just got up and left before he killed the bastard and tipped off the CIA, exactly what the Colonel had been trying to avoid when she sent him in to talk to the douche.

Seeing the hope fade from Chuck's face when he told them what he'd gotten from Burton almost made him go back and kill the bastard anyway.

* * *

Once she got to Harvard, she didn't have any time for anything but work, because she had three majors, Law, Business Management and Languages, and her extra curricular training workload was even higher than her official workload was. That didn't bother her so much though, because throwing herself into the work like that gave her less time to worry about Mama. What _did_ bother her was her handler, because although the man's cover was as her father, she knew from the way he was always watching her and touching her that it would only be a matter of time before he tried something.

That time came when the university broke for Christmas. Sarah was due to head off early the next morning for another intensive training session over the break (after all, she had no family or anyone else, so she had no reason to stop working), but she was woken in the middle of the night by him jumping on top of her and tearing at the tank top and boy shorts she was sleeping in. In a straight fight she could have taken him easily, but he was over twice her weight and was using that advantage to pin her down as he ripped off her boy shorts, so she had no choice but to kill the bastard. After she called it in she got dressed, and then started shaking, because she was terrified of what Graham would do to Mama for this.

When Graham arrived though, he just looked at the corpse with disdain then turned to her. "This won't be a problem with your new handler, but if you ever do this on a mission there will be serious ramifications! I don't think I need to tell you what that means, do I?" Sarah shook her head, terrified for her Mama, and he nodded and walked out.

They cancelled the Christmas training session because the spin doctors had to stage the scene whereby an ambulance was called when her 'father' had had a heart attack, but the paramedics were unable to resuscitate him so he was pronounced dead on the scene. They took his body 'home' for the funeral, but when she came back she had her Aunt Jane come to stay with her. Aunt Jane was her mother's sister-in-law and a widow, so she and the family had agreed that she would be the best one to look after Sarah now that her Daddy was gone.

Sarah had to agree that it _was_ better, not having to worry about being attacked every time she turned her back on her handler, but there were other issues with this Jane Bentley. Jane made it quite clear from the start that she regarded this babysitting assignment as an insult to her ability and record, and told her that she'd only agreed to take it because Deputy Director Graham had promised her a much better position as soon as she'd graduated from Harvard and was accepted as a full agent, ultimately the Deputy Director of Operations position. She also pointed out that as what she wanted was purely conditional on Sarah achieving everything expected of her, she would be pushing her harder than she'd ever been pushed before to make sure that she did.

For all her hard arsed approach though, Jane was doing quite a good job of training Sarah, she'd been a very accomplished operative and she knew what worked and what was fluff, she also knew many of the pitfalls that were waiting out there for operatives, _especially_ for women. When Sarah told her what had happened with her first handler and that she was still a virgin, Jane was quite passionate as she told her to lose her virginity on her terms, to go out and find some nice boy to have her first time with, or even better find nice boys to have her first _few_ times with, so that her memory of her first time wasn't of some disgusting pig that she was forced to submit to. Sarah couldn't bring herself to ask but after a while Jane nodded. "Yes, I _am_ talking from personal experience, my first time was at university. I'm pretty sure I was set up by the bitches from the sorority I was pledging for, but people kept feeding me drinks at a frat party until I was too drunk to stand and then they took me upstairs, I think at least two or three of them had me before some of my girlfriends found me and managed to get me out of there. The next time was after I'd started as an agent though, and my memories of that pig are almost as bad as that frat party, so yes Honey, please believe me when I tell you that you want your first few times to be on your own terms so you aren't forced to live with those types of memories all the time."

Sarah cried in earnest for the first time since she was a little girl after hearing Jane's story, but even though she knew that it was good advice, she still had to get herself a little drunk before she could go through with it when she found a nice boy at a party a couple of months before her seventeenth birthday (her real seventeenth birthday that is, because she was supposedly eighteen going on nineteen). And even though it didn't effect her quite so much afterwards the second time, she couldn't help wishing that the face she saw when she opened her eyes was Charlie's, because that was how she'd gotten herself through it, closing her eyes and pretending that it was Charlie.

She _was_ grateful that she'd taken Jane's advice when she was sent back to the Farm for part of the three months until her second year at Harvard started though, because Graham forced her to go through some very specific 'training' there that was so bad he'd had to threaten her mother several times before she'd go through with it, and the idea of remembering _that_ every time she time she thought about sex horrified her. Having regret that her first time wasn't what she wanted was bad enough, being that disgusted every time she thought about it would have been so much worse.

* * *

The unparalleled success of the Special Projects Group was what gave Auntie Di the pull she needed to give Ellie (and Chuck) an incredible experience for Ellie's twenty first birthday in February Nineteen Ninety Nine. They knew that she was up to something when she turned up with a string of oh so subtle black SUVs and told them all to get their Air Force dress uniforms on, so they weren't too surprised when they headed up through San Fernando on the way to Edwards Air Force Base.

They _were_ surprised when they got onto the base and saw the plane that was waiting for them though, because it wasn't the F-15 they'd been expecting, it was an SR-71! The SR-71 was of course the dream ride for pilots like them and they'd both made sure they qualified on the SR-71 simulators at test pilot school, so Auntie Di knew that Ellie would love it. She also knew her god daughter well enough that she just smiled and showed her the flight orders when Ellie dragged her off to one side to beg her to find some way to set it up so that Chuck could get to fly it too, because she already had it set up for USAF Major Eleonore Charlemagne to pilot the plane on the outbound leg to McConnell Air Force Base, and USAF Captain Karol Zaleski to pilot it on the return leg to Edwards after refueling. As the SR-71s were being retired in a couple of months, she'd also managed to get authorisation for them to test the craft's limits on this flight. Ellie hugged her, in tears as she thanked her, for knowing that she'd want Chuck to share in this as well as organising this incredible experience for her.

It was just as incredible as they'd expected it to be to take a plane to the edge of space and push it beyond Mach 3, and on the way back to Arcadia Auntie Di gave Ellie a framed certificate which recorded the fact that USAF Major Eleonore Charlemagne had flown the SR-71 (AF Ser. No. 61-7980/NASA 844) at a recorded airspeed of Mach 3.36 with the time, coordinates and altitude of where that speed was logged, and gave Chuck a similar certificate saying that USAF Captain Karol Zaleski had flown the same plane at Mach 3.45, with the details of when and where that was logged. Neither these nor the pictures of them in front of the SR-71 could be displayed where anyone else could see them of course, but they went up on the wall in the bunker with all their other certificates and pictures that had to be hidden from the world.

* * *

Larkin got more demanding about Chuck helping him about half way through their second year, but while Chuck was tempted to tell him to shove it, he grudgingly accepted that the act that Larkin was putting on _was_ keeping the people monitoring him for the DIA's Cover Bureau off his back, and they _were_ still hiding from both Graham and Volkoff, so he gave in to the douche's demands.

Hiding from Volkoff became a higher priority after June Two Thousand though, when they saw a report about an elderly woman, Dorothy Winterbottom, being tortured and killed in her home in Somerset, England. With the infallible memories that they got from their Mom, Ellie and Chuck weren't likely to forget the fact that Winterbottom was Uncle Hartley's name, that he had been English, or what she told them when they were older that the monster Uncle Hartley had been turned into did to her, so they started looking into the woman's murder.

This was where it got complicated, because it turned out that another woman, Elizabeth McArthur, had been tortured and killed in very similar circumstances the night before Uncle Hartley's mother was, and when they investigated _her_ , they discovered that she had returned from Moscow with a baby girl called Vivian McArthur in Nineteen Ninety One, but she had listed the father as 'unknown'. On top of that, her autopsy showed that she'd never had a baby. The woman's daughter was missing, and the most anyone could tell the authorities was that she was away at boarding school somewhere.

To Ellie and Chuck, there was no question that this girl was the missing sister who had been taken from their mother at birth, but their mother didn't want to discuss the matter. While Ellie and Auntie Em tried to talk to Mary about it, Chuck, Jeff and Anna were trying to locate what school payments had been made to for Vivian's education, or any record of her attendance in school computers in England and Europe, and Auntie Di sent Uncle Roan to England as soon as she could get a jet organised, because this was what he was the master of, charming information out of people. She also got the orders cut for an F-15E to be readied for a run to England or Europe.

Ellie and Auntie Em finally managed to get Mary to concede that her daughter was _not_ responsible for what the one who fathered her did, and that as she had been taken to England just after she was born and there was no evidence that Alexei Volkoff had set foot in England since then, there was little chance that she had been influenced by him. Indeed, the fact that her foster mother had been tortured to death like Uncle Hartley's mother implied that she had been hiding the girl from Volkoff and his people. As far as the nature versus nurture argument went, there could be no part of Volkoff in the girl's genes because Volkoff was nothing but an imprinted personality, so genetically she was a combination of Marjan Zaleska and Hartley Winterbottom and she'd always said that Hartley had been much like Stefan, so that would not be a bad thing.

By the time Ellie and Auntie Em managed to convince Mary to accept her daughter, Chuck had found evidence that an almost nine year old Vivian McArthur was attending a girls' boarding school in England, and after a long and teary phone discussion with Chuck up in Palo Alto, Mary and Ellie left to fly the F-15 to England.

Vivian was as bright as they'd all expected her to be (how could she not be, with two brilliant parents?), so her mother and sister had little trouble getting her to accept who they were. Luckily they had Roan there to talk the school into releasing Vivian into her family's custody, but the obvious resemblance between Mary, Ellie and Vivian helped there too.

As soon as they got Vivian out of the school, they spirited her out of the country, flying her back to America in the C-37A that had brought Roan to England before Volkoff and his minions could find her or any traces of her (Ellie had to fly the F-15 back to America, but that helped get her flight hours up anyway).

Mary and Ellie had used Russian names and accents at the school and told them that Vivian was being taken back to Russia where she had been kidnapped from, and a phone call to Chuck was all it took to create electronic records that showed that Vivian McArthur had been on a privately owned Yak-40 heading back across Europe, up to the point where the flight records terminated after it crossed into Belarus. Records of the ownership of the jet had also been wiped from years back and there were a few bankrupt and defunct businesses in the deleted links so there was no way to find what happened to it after that. While he was at it, he also deleted all records of Vivian McArthur from the school's computers to prevent anyone else locating the school the way he had.

When he was done, all the available evidence pointed to Vivian being taken back to Russia as the school had been told, and someone in the old Soviet Bloc professionally wiping the records there to prevent her being found. The point of this was to try and convince Volkoff that someone in his own organisation had grabbed his heir, to either kill her to prevent her taking over from him, or groom her to be their puppet, and Volkoff was paranoid enough to swallow that hook, line and sinker.

* * *

Vivian had inherited Mary's eidetic memory and other talents like Ellie and Chuck, so she had no trouble picking up an American accent and remembering that her name was Vivien Leigh Bartowski (because Vivien Leigh's birth name was actually Vivian Mary Hartley and using a movie star's name wouldn't be questioned much in Los Angeles) and she was eleven now for school. Anyone who asked what her story was was told that she was Mary and Emma's niece and her parents had been killed in a car crash, so her aunts had gotten custody of her. The beauty of this story was that it was both easy to remember, and most people would shy away from asking too many questions because it was a painful subject.

It was quite a change for Vivien, to be living in a loving home with her real mother and sister, Auntie Em, Uncle Bry and Skip there most of the time. Her mother, Auntie Em and Uncle Bry gave her the same kind of training that Ellie and Chuck got, but learning from them was a lot more rewarding and effective than the lessons she'd been made to take in some of the same types of things so that was no problem, and she was learning so much more now.

And as well as having a mother and sister, she had a brother! Chuck was coming down most weekends now to get to know his little sister, and Auntie Di couldn't really complain because he was still working, just in Arcadia instead of Palo Alto. But of course she _had_ complained about how much time he was wasting, spending six hours or more driving each way. Chuck was pissed off that she said that getting to know his little sister was wasting time, so he told her to get him a Pilatus PC-12 (he was in mission mode so he automatically specified that plane as the best fit for the situation as he was used to these planes from operations around the world and they were a large single engine single pilot plane with good range, speed and capacity that could operate from short dirt strips but they weren't so unusual that they'd attract too much unwanted attention) if his time was so bloody valuable, because he could save at least five hours each way by flying but the Learjet couldn't use the short Palo Alto airstrip, and it required two pilots anyway. He mainly said that to shut her up, but in late August he was sent to the Pilatus plant in Colorado to get certified on the improved special operations version of the PC-12 Eagle they were developing which Auntie Di had had rebuilt and recertified from a damaged early PC-12 with the help of Uncle Roan's silver tongue. While there were some very interesting features added to the plane, the primary difference as far as flying it was the glass cockpit, so it wasn't long before he was flying it back to Palo Alto.

 **NB: The actual Terminator quote was "Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with...it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear...and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead."**


	3. Back to the Salt Mines

**Sorry, I did it again, there a few more changes to School Daze to fill in holes to clarify a couple of points, but again nothing major, and again there are unpleasant topics and homosexuality portrayed so if this offends you, please don't read it.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Walker's opposition to the 'special' training and the reports from Bentley, the Farm and that first idiot about her development and performance on test missions made Graham decide to accelerate his plans for her. She was obviously capable of carrying out missions on her own, so he decided to start knocking those moral objections out of her before it was too late to in an effort to ensure that she'd do whatever he told her. Her fear for her mother had been enough to keep her under control so far, but if she told Bentley about that... that would be a problem, because Bentley knew enough about how things were done to convince her to demand _proof_ that he had her mother, so he had to have her broken enough to ensure obedience before that happened.

Sarah started getting sent on solo missions on weekends, but she could hardly walk when she got back from the first couple of missions because Graham had set her up to be raped, and then released with the inconsequential 'intel' she'd been sent for once they were all done with her. Jane sat her down and _made_ her listen to her after the second time this happened, firstly telling her to make him give her _proof_ that he had her mother just as he'd surmised, but also explaining to her that unless the target had been identified as having proven on-going value that necessitated keeping them alive, Graham had no cause to do anything to her or her mother as long as she met the mission objectives. If that bastard wanted to send her on an agent's mission, agents' rules had to apply, and if he tried to argue that they didn't apply because it wasn't a real mission, she'd bring the bastard down for sending her in to be raped like that.

The next time she was being sent in like that, Sarah asked a few questions about the targets, and after Graham said that it was just what they had that was important, she killed everyone in the house when they went to start on her and walked out with the intel in less than an hour, leaving a total bloodbath behind her. When he started threatening that her mother would pay for what she'd done, she played the card that Jane had told her to play and demanded to see proof that he had her mother. He showed her carefully staged images of a woman who _could_ be her mother but Sarah just rejected them, pointing out that none of these photos showed enough to prove that it was her mother _or_ that he had her, then looked him in the eye and repeated what Jane had told her about the fact that unless the target was _proven_ to be of high on-going value, an operative could not be penalised so long as they achieved the mission objectives. Graham scowled at her for a bit and then told her to get out.

* * *

Graham wished he could just get rid of Bentley, but the bitch had been canny enough to make sure she got an official record of their agreement before she started this assignment, and Walker's record so far showed that Bentley was doing a better job of training her than anyone else could…. Shit, at seventeen she was already more accomplished than most senior agents, certainly far more than her father had ever been….

Joe Blake's talents had never been anything more than physical, that was why when _he_ disappeared they hadn't bothered doing anything beyond putting out a termination order on him, but he _had_ been almost good enough to make SAD and he could charm the pants off most woman, as he proved when even the brilliant Fox fell to his charms… If that union hadn't created something as incredible as Sarah Walker, he'd be sorely tempted to track down whatever idiot ever let Joe Blake come in contact with the Fox and ensure that they suffered a very slow and painful death, because that had ultimately led to them losing the Fox, and _that_ had set the CIA back years, if not more. Mind you, seeing what happened when those types of physical talents were combined with a brilliant mind like her's made him wonder what had happened to Frost and Orion's children, because Frost had been as far ahead of everyone else twenty five years ago as Walker was now, so combining her abilities with Orion's brain would have almost certainly created something just as incredible there.

He snorted, thinking that women of that calibre appeared to be more choosy than other women though, because he'd heard that Walker had already earned herself the name the Ice Queen for pretty much the same reason Frost got her name in training, they both froze out any man stupid enough to try and play them like they did other women, and beat them down if they didn't get the message. As he recalled, Frost had never fallen for Blake's act either, but somehow she fell for Orion…. He shook his head at that, if he'd reassigned Frost when he saw what was happening they might have managed to hang onto them, but he'd thought at the time that it would give him something to hold over them, like he was holding the threat of punishing her mother over Walker….. That reminded him to make sure he put the fear of god into those techs to inspire them to come up with more convincing 'proof' that they had the Fox, those pictures had looked good to him but Walker had seen through them straight away.

With that he went back to thinking what Walker's next mission would be... he was tempted to just tell her that the targets were too important to kill so she'd have to put up with what they did to her, but that Bentley bitch probably had enough connections to dig up the truth, and he wasn't about to use _real_ high value targets for that type of mission in case she just killed them anyway. Perhaps it would be better to just give her real missions, real targets that she'd have the option of getting the intel from without killing them if they didn't cross whatever line she'd drawn in her head now….

He couldn't forget the end plan here, because Walker was the only one available who had proved that they what it took to match Frost... the only upside of what happened on that mission was that she proved she was far more dangerous than anyone could have believed, looking at that face of her's. After all, that was what he'd flagged her for when he saw what she did to those guys who decided that she'd make a fun party favour back when she was fourteen, and unlike Hansen she'd lived up to that promise.… Hansen _had_ shown promise, the way she'd taken out all those jocks with nothing but a cork screw like that, but she wasn't enough to take on Frost.

He didn't believe for a second that Frost wasn't still out there, or that he wouldn't be first on her list when she decided to go after the ones who destroyed her family, so he _needed_ Walker. Having her as a robot who did whatever she was told without question would have been preferable, but he'd take a highly competent and lethal operative who was worried enough about what he might do to her mother to obey him, and hopefully if he stopped pushing her so hard she'd stop demanding to see the proof that he didn't have…. So that's what he'd do, keep her on the go so she didn't have time to think things through, and stop pushing her enough to motivate her to put that brain she got from her mother to work on finding a way out out.

* * *

That was how it went for the rest of Sarah's time at Harvard, she had no trouble keeping well ahead of the course schedule while staying up around the top of all her classes, which gave her plenty of time to devote to her other training with 'Aunt Jane' and others. She didn't have anyone who was anything more than a classmate to her and they'd put the story about that she was from a strict Christian family to explain why she'd never been part of the party scene, which meant that no-one noticed when some of her nights, most of her weekends and some of the breaks were spent away on missions. At least Graham had stopped demanding that she use sex to get what she was sent for out of the targets, he still prodded sometimes of course but he didn't argue so long as she got what she was sent for, not even when she killed the targets, both she and Jane were suspicious about that but they were prepared to take what they could get.

Some weekends and most of the breaks were spent away on advanced training, and she actually found that she enjoyed most of this. Some of the technical training was challenging enough to stretch her and she got advanced driving lessons with all sorts of cars and motorbikes, special operations training with the CIA's SAD guys, and she learned how to fly! They'd created Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force officer identities for her before she left high school (surprisingly, they'd let her use names that she was used to from her father's cons for most of them so that she'd have less trouble remembering them, so she'd used Caitlin O'Connell for her Navy ID, Rebecca Franco for the Marines and Ilana Truffaut for her Air Force one, and she had to admit that that had made things easier, but they'd insisted that the Army one she used the most _had_ to be this Sarah Walker), and these were used for much of her advanced training.

Most of the planes and helicopters she was certified on were the type of utility and transport craft that she'd be likely to come across on missions (though she liked the business jets and fast helicopters), but Graham also had her certified on F-5Es, F/A-18s and F-16s in case she needed to 'borrow' a supersonic jet for a mission (that reasoning sounded pretty flimsy to her, but she wasn't going to say no to a chance like that), and flying a plane at supersonic speeds was a blast for someone who loved to going fast like she did. The first time she went supersonic, she remembered that news story about those Air Force test pilots taking the Blackbird past Mach 3 on each leg of one of its last flights before it was retired to give it its last hurrah in early Ninety Nine, and she'd wished that she could have been the one to do that. She was reminded of that in late 2002 when she watched the report of another Air Force Test Pilot taking a MiG-25 past Mach 3 on its last flight to the Air Force Museum, but she consoled herself with the thought that she'd gotten to take an F-16 to Mach 2, and that was more than most people could ever hope for.

With her eidetic memory, she had little trouble getting certified on new aircraft much faster than most pilots, and she had been intrigued to find that people had talked about a Mowgli and Raksha who'd come through between four and eight years earlier and had picked up things as fast as she did at the Air Force, Army _and_ Navy flight schools. The strange thing was, those names had _also_ come up in her special operations training in regard to people who came through there in the same period, though one of the SAD guys had said that she may well run into Mowgli at least on a mission some time because he tended to turn up on very difficult missions, and she gave off the same vibe. She dismissed her initial thoughts that these might all be referring to the same people as ridiculous, because she knew that she was only getting trained to this level in so many different areas because Graham had some grand plan for her, and very few people had the sort of power needed to push these things through like he did, she had to wonder what was going on there though.

* * *

Things were fairly quiet up until nearly the end of Chuck, Anna and Jill's time at Stanford, they had no problems keeping up with their academic requirements and Chuck, Jeff and Anna were keeping on top of the workload from Auntie Di, working with Mary, Emma, Ellie and Skip in Arcadia. Chuck and Anna were helping Jeff with the jobs for Charlemagne Computers Etc because that was the excuse for Jeff being there, and it also gave them a cover for missions. Jeff sometimes came with Chuck when he flew down to Los Angeles on the weekend to see the family, and in particular his little sister, but Anna rarely managed to get away because she had to keep up the cover with her girlfriend. Luckily they had little trouble getting Jill and Larkin to accept the explanation that Chuck had fallen off his Harley for the times he came back from missions injured, but Auntie Di just told him to shut up when he suggested that they use that reasoning to sell the Cover Bureau on letting him have bikes and things back in Arcadia. A couple of months before they graduated in 2001 though, their lives went pear shaped.

The roots of this actually went back to their second year, and this turned out to be the reason that Larkin had suddenly gotten more demanding about Chuck helping him with his grades, because that was when he was approached by the CIA's recruiter at Stanford, Professor Fleming.

The thing was, on paper, Larkin had looked perfect to Professor Fleming, good grades, athletic and good looking…. he had all the women on campus eating out of his hand, and he was ruthless and narcissistic enough to go for any proposal that involved _him_ getting what he wanted, and make sure he got it. The problem, as Fleming found out _after_ he'd sent the gushing report about his wonderful new recruit up the line, was that Larkin wasn't what he looked like on paper… Oh he was good looking and athletic and had all the girls eating out of his hand all right, but he wasn't anywhere near as bright as his grades had made him out to be, and Fleming had been specifically placed here to recruit the bright kids that Stanford was famous for.

It turned out that that scholarship kid Larkin was rooming with, Bartowski, had a girlfriend from a strict Christian family, so Larkin had managed to blackmail him into coaching him when he asked him to cover up the fact that he was staying with her a lot of the time, to prevent her family finding out about it. While Fleming gave Larkin points for the blackmail job, he wasn't about to risk _his_ reputation by sending up the male version of a dumb blonde bimbo, so he was trying to work out how to frame it so it _didn't_ look like the himbo had fooled him when Larkin pulled out all the stops.

When Larkin dropped to his knees, George was thinking that he should switch majors to Drama, because he had that down pat, but then his fly was down as if by magic and Larkin was going to town on him. George tried to stop him, for a moment, but that boy had such an incredible mouth! George Fleming wasn't gay, no Sir! and he'd sue anyone who said he was for defamation of character, but what that boy could do with his mouth…. he'd never experienced anything like it!

Larkin found Professor Fleming rather more mellow and open to discussing options once he was done. Fleming reasoned that it would be hard to retract his recommendation for Larkin without admitting that he'd been fooled, and as the boy had managed to do this good a job of fooling the faculty of Stanford so far, he shouldn't have any trouble fooling the office drones at the CIA when he got there. In the end Fleming said that Larkin had to get more coaching from Bartowski, and keep using the admins in the office to replace his results with better ones, but he'd cover for him where he could, _providing_ that he kept doing what he just did, got the female recruits he wanted on board, and helped him talk around some of the more recalcitrant female students that he wanted to spend some…. extra credit time with. Larkin didn't have any trouble agreeing to all of that, the hardest part would be getting the extra coaching from Bartowski, but he was worried about getting his girlfriend in trouble with her family, so the sap would agree for her sake.

Once Larkin was gone, Fleming pulled out Bartowski's file, but after considering it for a while, he regretfully shook his head. There was no question that the kid was brilliant, he was quite possibly the best in the school, but he wasn't athletic at all, in fact he was a klutz... he could remember at least half a dozen instances without trying of Bartowski coming in in bandages because he'd had an accident of some sort…. He wasn't unfortunate looking, but he could hardly talk to girls, Larkin saying he had a girlfriend had been quite a surprise but she was probably one of those geeks he hung out with and he'd heard students talking about how nice he was, so that was probably how he'd landed her. No, Bartowski definitely wasn't agent material, and the last time he sent up a recommendation for a promising analyst he was told in no uncertain terms that they were looking for agents, not analysts! With that, Fleming put Bartowski's file away and didn't think about him again for over two years until his students did the exam for his mandatory Subliminal Imagery course, and he found that he'd had the very one they'd been looking for under his nose for the last four years.

* * *

Larkin couldn't work out what was going on when he came in for his weekly session with Fleming, because he was bouncing around like the energiser bunny, and he wasn't normally like that until _after_ he'd done what he was here for. He asked him what he was so excited about and Fleming started raving about the Subliminal Imagery test results.

When Larkin asked what he got, Fleming dismissed it. "Oh, something in the eighties I think, but your room mate Bartowski got over _ninety eight percent!_ It was nearly a perfect score! We've never seen _anything_ over ninety percent before this, and the minimum threshold was set at ninety two percent, so Bartowski is the one we've been looking for!"

"What's so important about that?"

"What's so important? This is the Omaha Project Bryce, the most important project we have! We've all been searching for a candidate who had what we needed to be made the focal point for this project for years and _I'_ _m_ the one who found him!"

"What are you talking about George? What's the point of this Omaha Project?"

"The point Bryce? To create a super agent! Once they load this into Bartowski he'll become the most important agent in the CIA! Hell, he'll be the most important agent anywhere! No-one else will matter, the best of the rest will be made his support team and they'll get every important assignment, him and his team be unbeatable!"

The idea of being made redundant before he even started by _B_ _artowski_ infuriated Bryce, and hearing 'the best of the rest' brought one person to mind, that bitch who'd dismissed him without a thought when he'd turned on the charm as soon as they completed their mission, the Ice Queen. Word was that she'd only been in the game for a few years now but she apparently had all of the top agents worried because they said that there wasn't anything she couldn't do, and he had to concede that she _was_ stunning.

He smiled as he thought about how _that_ sort of arm candy would get him into anywhere, and get him access to anyone he wanted, but first he was going to make the bitch pay for dismissing him like that, she was the only one who'd ever turned him down and he wasn't going to let her spoil his record, he'd have her on her knees begging for forgiveness and doing everything he said. But apparently the key to getting everything he wanted was this one stupid test, so George was about to have the time of his life. It wouldn't be long before Bartowski was dismissed and the paperwork was sent to the CIA to confirm that _Bryce Larkin_ was the genius who'd scored over ninety eight percent in their stupid test, and then everything would be coming up roses for him! By the time Bryce left Fleming's office, he had his wish, they'd fabricated and lodged the evidence and reports for the case to have Bartowski kicked out for cheating, and Fleming had sent off the paperwork to the CIA to show that Bryce Larkin had scored over ninety eight percent in the Subliminal Imagery test. Bryce was feeling pretty good with the world at that point.

* * *

Anna knew that something was wrong when Jill's 'Uncle Bernie' suddenly turned up in Palo Alto and she had to go see him. The fact that Jill told her that this Uncle Bernie was the one who'd arranged for the endowment that paid for her to come to Stanford just made her more suspicious.

When Jill came back, she was in tears, because the endowment that Uncle Bernie had organised had come with strings attached. Apparently it had been put up by some spy organisation called 'Fulcrum' and now they were telling her that they owned her and expected her to do whatever they said, and they'd said that terrible things would happen to her family if she didn't. "Oh, and what they expect me to do is break up with Chuck and seduce Bryce Larkin to get him to ditch the CIA and come across to Fulcrum!"

When Jill finished recounting the tale, Anna held her as she asked. "Who are they Chuck? and what can we do about them?"

Chuck hadn't come across anything about them in his work, so he pulled out his phone, calling Auntie Di on speaker. "Auntie Di, what do you know about an organisation known as Fulcrum?"

She was quiet for a moment then asked cagily. "Not a lot, why do you ask Chuck?"

"Because they were apparently the ones who put up the endowment for my friend Jill Roberts to go to Stanford, and they've just called in their marker and told her that she'll do whatever they tell her to or else her family will pay."

Auntie Di swore at that and said. "I can hear that Chuck has me on speaker, so I may as well tell all of you, as I said to him I don't have much, but Fulcrum are supposedly a group of hard liners who aren't happy with how soft they see America is getting, so they've decided to take it on themselves to turn it back in the right direction."

Anna gave Jill a nudge to tell Diane what they were asking of her. "What they've ordered me to do is break up with Chuck and seduce Bryce Larkin to get him to leave the CIA and come across to them."

Diane swore again. "How the hell did you miss that Larkin was CIA Chuck?"

"I don't think he _is_ actually CIA yet Auntie Di, he was probably recruited here, but this Fulcrum must have found out something about him to make them want him."

"You've got a point there... Okay, I think we better get your mother and Emma in on this call, and Roan too, wait a minute…."

Once she'd gotten everyone on the call, they spent the next couple of hours explaining to Jill what she'd need to do to get out of this. When Mary came out and said that she was obviously going to have to let Larkin do what he wanted to her to seduce him, Jill broke down, and Anna had to remind Mary that while Larkin was apparently bi now from the stories about all the women he'd had sex with over the last couple of years, Jill _wasn't_ and she'd never had sex with a man.

It was actually Roan who gently pointed out that it would be best for Jill if she had her first few times with someone she could trust, like Chuck, and said that Anna could vouch for how gentle and caring he was. This was news to Mary and Diane, so there was a bit of shouting going on until Roan told them to shut up and reminded them what they were here to talk about.

Anna spoke up then. "Thank you Uncle Roan, and yes, Chuck _was_ gentle and caring for my first few times, it was wonderful actually so I'm sure that wasn't why Lou ran away, it's up to you Honey but if Chuck is willing I think that that would be a wonderful idea?"

Jill and Chuck nodded, and Anna spoke up again to cut off Mary's angry muttering. "We'll be discussing this the next time you're here Chuck!" with "Is there anything else we need to discuss about this?"

And when Mary spoke again she sounded genuinely regretful. "Yes, I'm afraid. While I agree with the suggestion to give Jill a gentle and lovely experience for her first few times, that will not be enough I'm afraid. From what you've said about this Larkin character, you will have to expect him to be rough and demanding, especially if he believes that he is taking Charles' long term sexual partner off of him, so if Jill is to be prepared for that, you will need to be rough and demanding with her as well Chuck, and oral sex, most men demand oral sex, all the more so when they're trying to establish their dominance."

Jill and Chuck were looking horrified at this, and Anna pointed out something else. "And anal, given Larkin's original orientation Jill will need to be prepared for that too."

That made Chuck look even more worried. "Oh no! You _can't_ have sex with him without a condom Jill! Being as arrogant as he is he probably refuses to use one most of the time so there's too much risk of AIDS! No, we have to find another way around this! Auntie Di, can't you arrange for Jill's family to be put into witness protection or something?"

His mother spoke up again. "Calm down Honey, there are ways around this, it isn't too difficult to convince a man that it's his idea to wear a condom, I can talk Jill through some methods and I'm sure that Roan and Diane will be able to tell her more. As far as witness protection goes, we don't know whether Fulcrum actually has them under observation yet but if they do, trying to move them would just put them at risk. Jill, this is your decision, if you think you can do it, doing what we've discussed will most probably be the safest option for your family. If that is what you choose, you and Charles should start practising sex after Roan and I tell you what you need to do. It will take you a few days before you'll be ready to try approaching Larkin though so we'll have time for more coaching sessions between your practice sessions. So Honey, can you do this, or do we need to take a chance and try to get your family out?"

There was silence as they waited for Jill's answer, she looked a question at Chuck and when he nodded she spoke. "Yes, if this is what it takes to keep my family safe, I can do it, so what else do I need to know?"

They spoke for a while longer and when they finished the call, Anna kissed both of them before they went to have the first of their practice sessions.

As Mary had said, it took a few days before Jill was anything like ready to approach Larkin, and she spent quite a bit of time on the phone to Mary, Diane and Roan getting coached on what she needed to do. That also gave her and Chuck the opportunity to stage an escalating series of arguments to convince everyone, and in particular Larkin, that there was trouble in their relationship. They couldn't work out what Larkin was looking so smug about when they had the final argument in his and Chuck's room though, not until Chuck was called into the Dean's office to be expelled for cheating the next day anyway.

Once they'd done what they could to ensure that Jill would be prepared, and talked through and role played various scenarios in hope that she'd be able to minimise the sex involved, Jill went to see Larkin. She was lucky, both in that he wasn't really interested in doing much with a woman and that he had a short fuse anyway, which meant that from what she said she got through it with minimal sex and had him set up, contented, for the talk she had to have with him. Playing up to Larkin's ego after he'd had his fill of sex was all it took for Jill to get him to agree to have a meeting with Uncle Bernie in that first session, which meant that she didn't have to see him again after that.

Larkin didn't waste any time telling everyone that Jill had come to him, upset about Chuck being caught cheating, and how he'd banged her every which way. This of course had Jill being called a two timing slut by most of the people on campus, but she was almost finished at Stanford anyway and as long as she still had Anna (and Chuck for that matter) she wasn't worried about what people on the campus thought of her. She only had to finish her exams and leave.

Uncle Bernie was an old hand at this so he knew how to deal with people like Larkin, he just offered him Jill and anything else he wanted, but while Larkin took everything else, he passed on Jill because he had his eye on the prize, the Ice Queen. Luckily for Jill, that meant that Fulcrum really had no further use for her, sure, she'd bagged them the prize but she'd just happened to be in the right place for that. They weren't about to let her off the hook completely, but they put her aside to be forgotten until something else came up once Larkin passed on her.

* * *

As soon as they had confirmation that Jill would be OK, Chuck took the plane and headed back to Los Angeles. Of course, the first thing he had to face when he got home was the discussion about what Uncle Roan and Anna had revealed when they were trying to deal with Jill's crisis, that he'd had sex with _two_ girls when he was eleven or twelve. That wasn't a fun discussion, but they had Ellie and Auntie Em there to diffuse the situation, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

The week since his expulsion had given him plenty of time to collect all the digital and video evidence he needed to prove his case against the university (Larkin was pathetic when it came to security, so he'd just had to wait until he was logged onto the network to get a copy of everything on his laptop, which included all of the evidence that he was collecting on Fleming to ensure that he delivered on his promises, as well as the evidence that they'd fabricated against Chuck (and the sex tape he'd made of him and Jill but Chuck corrupted the video enough to ensure that she couldn't be identified before he could use it). He also had the video evidence from the IP cameras he'd set up in their room in first year, which clearly showed Larkin planting the test results under his mattress, and showing the campus police where to find them), and he had plenty of work to be getting on with in Arcadia.

There hadn't been anything of any great interest other than the recordings of Fleming with Larkin and other students from his office and the records of students' altered results on Larkin's laptop, but those, and of course the recordings of Larkin planting the stolen exams under his mattress to be found by Campus Security made most of the case they needed to get his expulsion overturned, the rest came from the Stanford systems logs which showed where Fleming had altered Chuck's results to match the stolen exams.

A month after Chuck had been expelled, he went back to Stanford, with John as FBI Special Agent Martin Harris, and Roan as Chuck's lawyer Herman Goldstein, senior partner at Goldstein, Cohen and Marks again. The Chancellor went white when he saw them, because he hadn't forgotten what had happened the last time these men were in his office. He quickly called the Dean and other relevant people in.

John steamrollered over their objections as he showed proof that everything used to expel Chuck had in fact been fabricated by Larkin and Fleming, and that the Dean had done absolutely no investigation into the matter and ignored the processes that he had been legally required to follow, expelling Chuck without giving him any opportunity to defend himself on Flemings' word alone. Faced with the proof that they were facing serious legal issues, the university immediately reversed the expulsion and cancellation of Chuck's scholarship, and offered him the opportunity to take his exams at his convenience so that he could graduate with the same standing as he would have before this unfortunate business.

They were taken aback when Chuck said he'd take the exams then and there, because he'd moved away immediately after he was expelled and it would be difficult to come back to Palo Alto now, but they scrabbled to get set up the examination immediately, hoping that this would be enough to get them out of the hole they'd dug themselves into. Meanwhile, John and Roan remained in the Chancellor's office, going through the evidence and showing where the university had failed to comply with its legal responsibilities in this matter.

They were still there when Chuck returned a couple of hours later. The officials asked whether he wanted to schedule a day to come back to do the exams, presuming that he must have given up on them, but he shook his head, saying that they were all completed. While shocked, one of the officials was sent to get the results of the exams while they worked through the rest of it. Roan pointed out that his client had changed his name as soon as he left Stanford to try and get away from the stigma accruing from the very public scandal of being expelled the way he was and requested that Mr Bartowski's degrees be issued in his new name, Charles Carmichael, handing over the paperwork to show that the change of name was legal. They fell over themselves agreeing to this, and re-issuing his MBA in his new name as well.

Roan smiled to himself then, because _this_ was what he'd been looking forward to! With that, he launched into the matter of compensation for loss of reputation and potential earnings resulting from Mr Bartowski's unlawful and very public expulsion for cheating. He presented numerous newspaper and on-line reports about Stanford's bright young star Charles Bartowski being caught cheating and expelled for that as evidence of this. Roan then presented them with a claim for seven million dollars compensation for the losses Mr Bartowski had incurred, but the university officials ignored the Chancellor when he tried to shut them up (as he recognised the significance of that amount and knew what was about to happen) and they rejected it out of hand, saying that it was preposterous because Bartowski was getting his degrees and he'd already changed his name to remove any stigma attached to the matter.

Roan looked a question at Chuck and at Chuck's nod took back the claim paperwork. The Chancellor groaned at this, but the other officials were crowing. "You're withdrawing your ridiculous claim then?" Roan shook his head and grinned wolfishly as he presented the paperwork for a new claim of _fourteen_ million. "Not at all! I really must thank you Chancellor, it was rather sporting of you not to spoil my fun after the last time. You see gentlemen, Mister Bartowski, sorry, Mister _Carmichael_ here is an honourable young man and he didn't want to see the university being unfairly penalised for the failings of a few individuals, so he insisted on the much lower claim amount. However, as my agreed fee is a percentage of the settlement I obtain for him, he conceded that if, and _only_ if, you rejected the extremely fair compensation claim that he asked for out of hand and refused to consider it, he would allow me to proceed with my original proposal, which is what we are now doing. So…"

Roan spent the next hour going through the detailed earning projections for Stanford's brightest young star in possibly decades, against those of an unknown Stanford graduate with the type of results that they knew he was capable of. He also pointed out that, while Chuck had changed his name to Carmichael to remove the stigma now attached to the Bartowski name due to the unfounded slander put about by representatives of the university, his sister was in no position to do this, so by defaming Chuck, they had also adversely effected his sister's reputation and prospects. He added that the university should thank its luck stars that the rest of the family had agreed to forgo pursuing damages because they were not trying to start their careers as the two younger Bartowskis still were.

They left Stanford that day with Charles Carmichael's degrees (with an ever better result than he'd been expecting), and guarantees from the university that they would provide fair and honest references to any university that he chose to pursue post graduate studies with _and_ confirmation that the charges of cheating levelled against Mr Bartowski had been proven to be totally false, and that he'd since obtained his degrees without revealing the name he was now using if they received any formal enquiries on the matter. They had also confirmed with the bank that the fourteen million dollars had been transferred into Goldstein, Cohen and Marks' account before they left, and readily agreed to the university's conditions of total secrecy around the outcome and terms of the settlement, as that suited them down to the ground.

* * *

Coming up to her final exams at Harvard in April 2002, Sarah Walker (or rather the Ice Queen, as that was the only name most people in the CIA knew her by) had completed an unprecedented number of missions, with an unparalleled success rate to boot, in the past three and a half years…. but Sarah was upset because 'Aunt Jane' had been the closest thing to family she'd had since the day her father took her away from everyone she loved, and she'd be losing that in just over a month if they made her a full agent when she graduated from Harvard. Jane could see what was going through her head and sat her down to talk about it.

"I know I complained about how taking on the job of becoming your handler was going backwards for me three and a half years ago, but you know that I've loved our time here together don't you?" Sarah nodded tentatively at that.

"You also need to know that even though I'll stop being your handler, I can…. and will! become your mentor, and the mentor program is an established culture in the CIA that even Langston Fucking Graham would have trouble fighting. An agent may only be prevented from contacting their mentor in situations where they are undercover and any and all communications represent a risk. Leaving an agent under those circumstances for extended periods is also prohibited, so if I don't hear from you for too long, I've got grounds to call for an investigation, and you better believe that if I don't hear from you at least every month or two I _will_ be demanding an investigation!"

"Honey, you're going to turn this agency on its head, and I'm going to be right there, cheering you on, Okay?" This time Sarah's nod was more confident.

"So stop worrying about things that aren't going to happen, and start worrying about how I'm going to kick your arse if you don't ace all your final exams and assignments!" That got the smile she loved to see from Sarah, and they put aside their cares for the rest of the night.

Sarah did ace all of her final exams and assignments, graduating summa cum laude on both her Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees and magna cum laude on her language degrees. She and Jane didn't have a chance to celebrate that achievement though, they barely had time to exchange contact details because Graham had her extracted as soon as she finished her last exam, and she was just handed the envelope that held her formal agent's credentials on the plane on the way to her first mission.

* * *

Sarah went for eight months from the day she finished her exams without any significant breaks, just bouncing from one mission to the next and her supposed 'down time' was usually taken up in travelling to the next mission, so she couldn't get back for Jane's induction as the Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA, but at least with Jane holding down that role, she was better able to track where Sarah went because all field agents reported through the DDO.

At the start of 2003 though, Sarah was assigned to work with an all woman team in Paris with the ridiculous name of the CAT Squad. She was pleased to find that at least she had been partnered with Carina Miller, because she and Carina had worked together many times and they meshed well both professionally and personally. In fact, Carina was the closest thing to a friend she'd had since she was forced into this life, but one of the other women on the team, Zondra Rizzo, quickly became a friend as well.

Their team achieved quite a lot in the two years that they were together, even though the fourth member of their group was a traitor who had been placed there to sabotage them. When Amy was killed in a trap that she'd tried to set for them though, someone (Sarah's money was on Graham) immediately disbanded the group and they were all sent back to their agencies (the CIA for Sarah, DEA for Carina and FBI for Zondra) without warning. As with Jane, they hardly had time to exchange contact details before they were sent off to their respective agencies.

Sarah's immediate reaction when she was called into Graham's office to meet her new partner after that was 'Oh fuck no!', because she remembered this idiot from a mission she did when she was still at Harvard. As an agent he was mediocre, but as a person he'd never rate that high. She requested a private word with Graham to ask why, with her record, he would partner her with something like this, but he ignored her. So that was how she came to be partners with Bryce Larkin in 2005.


	4. Familia

**Yeah, I know that people will be screaming about something in this chapter, all I can say is that it's the most sympathetic depiction of him you'll find in one of my stories, ;^)**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

As soon as Anna and Jill finished their final exams, Jeff, Anna and Jill packed up, put the house on the market and went home to Los Angeles. After spending over four years together in Palo Alto, moving back to their families' homes was hard for Anna and Jill, all the more so because Jill's parents were asking questions about just who was Chuck's girlfriend, because they'd heard something about Jill being with Chuck at Stanford? The situation got worse when Jill stopped answering any of their calls and Anna went to see her to find out what was wrong, only to be told by her parents that she'd gone to New York about a job opportunity.

They couldn't find any record of her in New York when they tried searching for her, and Anna was getting ready to run off to New York to hunt her down on foot if she had to. Anna hurt Chuck for the first time when he tried to point out that they had a much better chance of finding her using the resources that they had at their disposal here, because she snarled at him that that had really worked for him, finding his precious Sammie, hadn't it? He just looked at her, then turned and walked out without a word, but they heard his bike bellowing off up the street a few minutes later. Anna fell apart when she realised what she'd done, and he wouldn't answer his phone so she could tell him how sorry she was. When Chuck came back in the early hours of the morning, she was sitting in the living room, waiting to apologise, but he just took her by the hand and they went to bed to hold each other.

Anna got a letter from Jill a month or so after she disappeared to explain what had happened. Apparently she hadn't been telling them the truth when she said that everything had gone to plan with Larkin, as she'd managed to get him to wear a condom the first time, but not the second or third times. She hadn't gotten AIDS from him though, she'd gotten pregnant. She'd hadn't known what the signs of being pregnant were, so she didn't work out that she was until the foetus had developed to the point where the books she read said that it was a person. The thing was, she'd been raised as a strict Catholic and while being a homosexual was regarded as a sin she still believed in what she was taught, so she had decided that this was god's punishment for her having sex outside of the sanctity of marriage and would be keeping the baby as her penance. She'd gone to someone she knew through her family who had offered to support her through the pregnancy and give her somewhere to raise the baby. After the baby was born, she was hoping to make a new life for the two of them somewhere that everyone who she'd let down couldn't find her. She finished by saying that she'd asked someone to post this letter well away from where she was to prevent anyone finding her, and that she was hoping that Fulcrum would leave her family alone if she just disappeared.

Anna broke down when she read that letter, asking why Jill hadn't trusted that they could deal with this together. That was probably why she reacted the way she did when her own parents started pressuring her to settle down with a good Chinese boy instead of running around with her wild American boyfriend. Her response to that was to go upstairs, pack a few bags, grab her laptop and leave, telling them that she'd get someone to come and get the rest of her things. When she got to Casa Bartowski, she asked if she could stay in their guest room until she found herself a place, but Chuck just took her bags and led her to his room as she was obviously in no state to be by herself at that point.

* * *

They laid on the bed, holding each other and talking about Jill and what they were going to do until Ellie came up to get them for dinner. All the women came up to hug and kiss Anna and tell her that she was staying here, then they settled down to dinner. Their mother shook her head at Ellie when she tried to wind up Chuck about the fact that as the only male in the house he was even more of a minority now, and asked. "Have you two decided what you're going to do? I expect that you've started making plans at least?"

Chuck grinned at Anna because he'd told her that one of them would bring that up straight away. "Yeah Mom, we're going to use Charlemagne Computers Etc and float a few more cover businesses so we can switch and change when we need to. The plan at the moment is that Anna will be the head of Lotus Security Systems, I'll be the head of Piranha Security & Technology, Skip will head up Novatech Industries and Jeff will stay as the head of C C E. We'll mostly offer consulting services, though we'll do some technical services as well. We're thinking of getting premises…."

Anna gave him a look at that " _We_ are?", but he just nodded and continued "I'm thinking with living quarters _now"_ (shooting a look at Ellie) "in Pasadena, because we can be close to the tech business area, and also close to Caltech for our post grad studies. If we do this right it will also give us another location to run our operations out of, because the Echo Park apartments are too open for that."

(When Ellie finished medical school and started at the Westside Medical Centre, the Cover Bureau had insisted that she needed more appropriate accommodations so they organised an apartment for her in Echo Park. They went in and bought the other apartments there afterwards, putting some of their people in them and improving the security systems, but none of them were really happy about Ellie staying there because it was too exposed, so she was home more nights than she was there. The Cover Bureau had also tried to insist that she start up a relationship of some sort, arguing that a beautiful young woman like her being unattached would attract too much attention. She was on the verge of telling Mom they were flying to Washington so she could tell them exactly what she thought of _that_ idea when the solution fell into their laps…. Ellie and Skip had been hanging out together at UCLA and Skip hooked up with one of her classmates, Jethro, well his name was actually Devon Woodcomb but he _was_ thick as a brick and when Mary called him that in an exasperated moment and everyone else took it up, he locked it in by embracing it as an endearment. Jethro was too afraid of his parents back east to come out of the closet so he tried to act all macho, going on about extreme sports and coming onto women all the time. The situation where he and Skip hooked up actually came about because Skip had to intercede to save him from serious damage when he was stupid enough to come onto Ellie and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. He drove most of them, even Skip, around the bend most of the time with his stupid comments but he generally made Skip happy. When he started at Westside with Ellie and Ellie got that 'suggestion' from the Cover Bureau though, Skip used Jethro's fear of his parents' reaction to convince him that pretending to be in a relationship with Ellie would help cover things up, just like Chuck was covering for Anna and Jill. The fact that he and Skip were living in one of their apartments at Echo Park too made it easy enough to pretend that he was with Ellie instead of Skip when they threw parties there, and John, Bry and Mary were intimidating enough to dissuade people from dropping by when they felt like it, the security measures they'd added which kept non-residents out of the complex helped with that too.)

Chuck watched his mother do the mental shift from Mom to operative as she considered that last, nodding. "Yes, it would be good to be able to spread things around a little."

* * *

Anna's anguish and anger over how Jill had left her took a while to get over, but settling into her new life as part of the family helped. Her own family were quite shocked the day she turned up with a team of agency removalists (including John) to get the rest of her things, and she made sure that her mother got the message when she handed her a cheque which the attached note showed covered everything they'd spent to send her to Stanford, and the cost of her car as well…. that she was paying back whatever they'd spent on her to ensure that they no longer had any claim over her, because as far as she was concerned they were no longer part of her life! As she was about to leave though, Anna stopped and turned back, wanting to lash out.

"By the way _mother_! Chuck isn't my boyfriend, he's my best friend. That's all he ever has been or will be, even though he's by far the best man I could ever hope to meet, because I'm a _lesbian_! Chuck and his family have supported my choices in this for over seven years now without question, even though my own family never would!" With that she stormed out, with a smirking John Casey following her, but she broke down in the car when John said "Good for you" and gently asked if she was OK, crying on his shoulder. When she'd recovered enough she kissed him on the cheek, giving him a look of thanks before they drove off.

Her parents never cashed that cheque for some reason, whether her mother tore it up to cover up what it meant or they were trying to apologise, but Anna never contacted them to ask why, she just left the money sitting in her account until she had a use for it. They also didn't know that she'd legally changed her name to match her Navy identity of Anna Wang and got Stanford to reissue her degrees in that name, so their daughter Anna Wu didn't exist any more.

Even though she'd said that she didn't want to be found, they did start a search for Jill, adding it to the search for Sammie. They still hadn't any luck with _that_ search, but something else had been catching Chuck's eye over the past few years, an increasing number of references to an exceptional young CIA agent who was only ever referred to as the 'Ice Queen', as in that time she'd apparently completed far more missions than anyone else with an unparalleled success rate (and a frightening kill count), and comments about her were usually around the fact that the bitch was stunning but inhuman, and that no-one could stand up to or match her because she was a robot. These stories intrigued Chuck, because they conjured an image in his head of a beautiful, deadly cyborg (something his mother and Ellie said just proved that he watched way too much sci-fi, but Auntie Em, Viv and Anna were kinder about), so he'd added any references to the Ice Queen to his searches as well.

* * *

They looked around Pasadena for something that would make suitable premises for 'their' offices (Anna still used air quotes whenever she said 'our offices' because Chuck was the only one putting any effort into this) until Chuck found a property with a fairly large two storey warehouse building that took up three quarters of the block on the edge of a nice residential district, the property also included a smaller, single storey building going across that end of the block with quite a large yard and they all agreed that it suited their various purposes quite well. As a warehouse, the ground floor of the main building was more than double height, so with another high ceiling floor above the building was about fifty feet high. The buildings were vacant and run down, but structurally sound, as the owners had basically been hanging onto the property to sell to developers when the market came up enough because the location was good and it was quite a large block, in fact it was literally a city block as it was over 45 x 180 Metres with roads running right around it. Once Chuck had confirmed that everything was above board, he used the tricks Uncle Roan had taught him over the last ten years or so to talk the price down to about fourteen million for an immediate sale, transferring the money the day they exchanged contracts to close the deal quickly before they could reconsider. Anna was a little surprised by the way he did that, because she'd been tied up keeping Jill in the dark about their other activities and they'd never really discussed money matters, so Chuck laid it all out now.

As far as the money she knew about went, they'd sold the house in Palo Alto for a profit, and with the extra they'd made from investing the money, the original false arrest settlement had netted them over three million. After Uncle Roan's fee came out of the defamation settlement in May they had thirteen and a half million more there, and the salaries for the majority of what had grown to nearly fifty senior officer identities that made up the core Special Projects Group over the past ten years had been going into a fund that was sitting at over thirty five million now, because they'd been pushing promotions (with the associated pay rises) through the system for all of them as soon as possible and using the information they acquired to invest that money rather well. So between those accounts they had over Fifty Million left in what was essentially their expenses accounts after he paid for the property in Pasadena, and as she knew, the slush fund that they used for paying arms dealers and the like on missions normally had at least Forty to Fifty Million in it to keep up their reputation of having a large mob behind them, but those two were only a small fraction of what they had.

What they'd never had the chance to go over was the fact that whenever they cleaned out the ones they took down on missions, like that sleazy arms dealer they got the F Fives off in Ninety Eight, he punted the money they took into their off-shore accounts. They had taken nearly a Hundred and Forty Million off that particular arms dealer, which had covered the nearly Hundred Million he'd had to spend setting up the defense contractor to deliver on Auntie Di's new project over the previous ten months, those accounts always kept going up and down like that.

Chuck explained that while he was the one who got the money out of the country and into their accounts over there, he, Ellie and Auntie Em managed their off-shore holdings together. They normally maintained around Two to Three Hundred Million to cover big outgoings like setting up the defense contractor or really big deals in their off-shore ready funds, and had another Two or Three Hundred Million invested to bring in money to cover the cost of their operations. Auntie Di knew that they had the money to do what they wanted but usually agreed that it was better if she didn't know the details of what they had or where it was.

Anna laughed at that. "Well I suppose that explains why no-one else looked worried when you were talking about buying business properties in Pasadena!"

After Chuck told her how much they had to use, Anna was less surprised when she saw the extent of his plans to renovate the building, as he was cladding the entire building in armour glass two way mirrors (which _was_ actually armoured glass, capable of handling impacts from over 30mm rounds), this cladding effectively added another floor to the building height as it extended five metres past the roof line, and the design included _active_ defence systems as well as the armour glass and other passive defence systems. The roof was reinforced so that it could safely support CH-53Es if necessary (even though the only helicopters they were planning to have use the roof as a helipad for the foreseeable future were their own MD 600 and A109), splitting three quarters of the ground floor into two levels and making two basement levels. The ground floor would nominally be taken up by five businesses, Lotus Security Services, Piranha Security & Technology, Charlemagne Computers Etc, Novatech Industries and Shiloh Security Storage, with apartments above them, as Chuck had decided that the bigger building would be more believable with several business offices and the storage business, and he had plans to expand their operations down the track. There was another feature of this property which had made it even more attractive for their purposes when they discovered it, because it must have been used for illegal purposes at some point as there were at least a dozen escape tunnels going out from the basements of the buildings which mostly terminated under commercial properties now, so part of the renovation plans was to shore these up, carefully clear the outer ends of these tunnels and conceal and secure both ends of the tunnels.

The family was amused about Chuck's 'modest' business plans, but conceded that everything appeared quite logical and sound for their operations, so Auntie Di arranged for the appropriate government contractors to come in and start working on it. They were all working from home (Arcadia or Echo Park) while the building renovations were proceeding, but referrals from people who knew them from the hacker world and Stanford (and Auntie Di and Uncle Roan quietly directing people their way) resulted in their reputation spreading quickly, so quickly that they had to start thinking about bringing even more people on to handle the workload.

* * *

Chuck and the others' plans to get their cover businesses up and running were all forgotten a week and a half into September, as the news that went around the world on the eleventh made many people forget what they'd been planning. The impact on some was for an hour, others for a day, but others would have to deal with its effects for the rest of their lives. While the news of the attack on the twin towers broke over them like a wave, the other attacks didn't have the same impact once they'd confirmed that Auntie Di, Uncle Roan, Dad, Dr Dreyfus and the other people they knew in DC were OK. It took them longer to find out that a couple of the people they worked with and were friendly with (you couldn't exactly call people friends when you couldn't afford to let them see your face or hear your unaltered voice because there was no way that they wouldn't spot that you're ten to fifteen years younger than your identity, or risk that they might recognise a long term fugitive from the CIA or famous operatives like John and Uncle Bry) had in fact been in the towers when they went down.

Every other job they had was put aside to work on hunting down and evaluating information relating to the attacks, even John and Uncle Bry dove into tracing the information. Someone who only saw Old Ironpants and didn't know Diane Beckman well enough to see past the mask might have believed that she was basking in the acclaim and power that she was accruing from her relatively small unit delivering two thirds of the actionable intel coming out in the wake of the attacks, but Diane was breaking inside. She knew, and had been friends and family with, people who had been lost, and she couldn't get the image of the rest of the men, women and children who had fallen to this out of her head either.

Luckily, in the wave of shock and anguish that followed the attacks, no-one paid that much attention when people didn't turn up for classes, or even work, so they were free to devote all of their time to investigating the matter, passing along any actionable intel as soon as it had been confirmed. Even on the first day though, there was an undercurrent of suspicion growing in the intelligence community, because the powers that be were ignoring the valid intel they were being given and _ordering_ investigations to go in other directions without any evidence to support their decisions.

Chuck, John, Uncle Bry, Mary, Anna and even Ellie were being sent off on missions within a few days after the attacks, though half of Uncle Bry's missions were as part of the CIA contingent. The problem was that they were always being sent in the wrong direction, so while they saw a lot of action, added to their medal counts and gained more promotions from their parts in these missions, they found nothing to do with what they were supposedly there to look into, because they were in the wrong place for that.

By the time the initial reactions to the attacks had settled down to become part of the War on Terror, their groups had a notably higher profile than they'd had before the attacks, because anyone who knew anything recognised that they had been the ones who were managing to locate the information that no-one else could. With the increased interest in their groups, they had to expand to meet demand, so Diane, Emma, Mary, Ellie and Chuck had to go through the process of interviewing and selecting suitable people to bring in. With the new people spread around the country, and some overseas, it wasn't too hard to set it up so that there was no face to face communication, other than with the newly minted Brigadier General Diane Beckman.

All of their new and expanded groups were bundled into what was now widely known as the Special Projects Group. There were more than a few questions about why a shiny new one star General was meeting with the National Security Advisor so often, and no-one bought the line that they were just two friends meeting for drinks much of the time (quite aside from anything else, no-one believed that Old Ironpants _had_ any friends). There were also questions about how Navy Commanders Charles Carmichael, Eleanora Zaleska and Emmeline Boudreaux came to be promoted to Captains and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Marie Lestrange was promoted to a full Colonel in December 2001 once the initial flurry of activity after Nine Eleven died down, because Carmichael and Zaleska hadn't even been halfway to the minimum time in grade. Neither the fact that these officers were all part of the new General's command, or that their questions had been shut down without any explanation by the Secretary of Defense sat well with most of the people asking.

* * *

When Auntie Di and Uncle Roan suddenly turned up at the house unannounced for Christmas in 2001, Chuck was suspicious, all the more so when Auntie Em snapped at her sister. "Stop playing games and bring them in Di!"

That made the others turn and look at the cars they had come in, to see the door open and a face that they hadn't seen in nine years. Lou Palone had been part of their original four musketeers up until she and her family suddenly disappeared without a word to anyone and it was discovered that they had moved to Israel. But Lou wasn't alone, because two little girls got out of the car with her, they looked to be about eight years old, and were apparently twins and obviously related to Lou because they looked like smaller versions of her.

Chuck could see the knowing smiles on the faces of the older members of the family out of the corner of his eye, but Ellie appeared to be as confused as he and Anna were. They could see Lou saying something to the girls, and then she took each of them by the hand and led them up the path.

The only thing stopping Chuck and Anna running to greet Lou was the girls, because they couldn't work out what the hell was going on here and didn't want to frighten them, so they waited for her….. But as it was, Chuck almost fainted when Lou reached them and said. "Lottie, Charlie, this is your Papa!"

The dam burst then and everyone was greeting her and the girls, then they went inside to hear the story. Auntie Em and Ellie would get the story later because they took the girls out the back to play, along with Viv and Auntie Di and Uncle Roan's daughter Josie, as some parts of this story weren't likely to be suitable for children.

* * *

What not even Lou had known back at the start of Ninety Three before they disappeared was that her father was in the process of finalising arrangements for the family to emigrate to Israel, because he saw the loose and easy ways of America as a threat to his children growing up as good Jews. Both of Lou's parents were well respected scientists who observed the requirements of Judaism, so Israel was eager to get them.

When they discovered that their thirteen year old daughter was _pregnant,_ and she wouldn't say who the father was, or more to the point, refused to confirm that it was Charles Bartowski because it was obvious to everyone who knew them knew how devoted she and Anna Wu were to the boy, Lou's parents (mainly her father) decided to put an end to this immediately so her mother took her and her two brothers to New York that very night while her father stayed to pack up and sell the house.

The twins were born in Israel, and after considerable pleading and a little blackmail her mother managed to convince her father to let Louisa name her own children, so they were named Charlotte and Charlene after their father, or more commonly Lottie and Charlie. When they were alone, her mother asked why she refused to admit that it was Charles when she was asked, and she confessed that she'd been afraid of what her father might have done to Chuck if she confirmed it then, because he was so angry. She'd also confessed that Anna had also experimented with sex with Chuck, but they'd both discovered that no matter how much they loved Chuck and how good what he did for them felt, sex with him, a man, just wasn't right for them, so they'd experimented with each other as well, and that was where they found what was right for them. This was a shock for her mother, to find out that her little girl was not only a mother at thirteen, but a lesbian as well, but she loved her no matter what, and her beautiful granddaughters of course.

They agreed that her father and brothers weren't likely to be very understanding though, so they kept Lou's preferences a secret between them, but while the twins were officially recorded as Lou's daughters and treated as such inside the family, to everyone else they were her sisters. Lou finished her story with the fact that she'd gotten into the Talpiot program and was doing her military service when Auntie Di and Auntie Mary contacted her back in May.

* * *

That made everyone turn and look at Auntie Di, so she started her part of the story.

"When Roan and Anna dropped the little bombshell that Charles had been having sex with Anna and Louisa when he was eleven…." She stopped at the shocked look on Lou's face. "Oh I'm sorry Louisa, Anna only found this out when they were at University herself. You see, when we created Eleanor and Charles' new Bartowski identities in Ninety One we made them older to help hide them, twenty seven months older in Charles' case, so he actually turned twenty in October..."

Lou kept staring at her in shock so she picked up the story again to take attention off the poor girl.

"Anyway, when they dropped that little bombshell, I suddenly remembered how devastated Charles and Anna had been when Louisa suddenly left without a word just after that, and it occurred to me to wonder whether the two events were related, so I asked some friends in Israeli intelligence to make some enquiries for me, and sure enough they came up with the information that Charlotte and Charlene Palone had been born to Louisa Palone about six months after the Palone family arrived in Israel, and their father was recorded as Charles Bartowski, a citizen of the United States of America. I confirmed that Louisa was single and unattached and working in the Talpiot program… congratulations on that by the way Honey because I know how difficult it is to get into the program..."

"Anyway, we knew that Charles would want to know about his daughters, but Mary and I agreed that the choice had to be Louisa's, so we flew to Israel to talk to her…. You lot never told me how uncomfortable those damned F Fifteens are, especially on long flights like that where you need to have things sticking into you, if I'd known _that_ I would have taken a few more days and gone on a civilised plane!…. So…. Louisa was angry that we'd even question that Charles should know about his daughters, but after she'd calmed down enough to discuss it, she said that while she'd love to bring the girls back so the family could be together, she still had another four or five years of her military service left..."

She snorted at that. "You should have seen her face when Mary pointed out that we had a prior claim to her, because United States Air Force Major Louisa Palone had been one of our's since Ninety Two…. But it still took us months to get the Israelis to accept the validity of Louisa's Air Force commission and therefore our prior claim and release her from the IDF and it only got harder after Nine Eleven, and her father was trying to stop her taking the girls out of Israel as well. We eventually got everything signed off by the Israeli government so they were cleared to leave and sent a C Thirty Seven A to bring them home, and that's where we are! We don't know about her father and brothers, but Louisa's mother will be coming over to see them as often as she can, we've told her that we'll pay the fares."

* * *

Chuck and Anna were looking more than a little shell shocked, and Lou was looking very pensive until Chuck came out of it enough to gather her and Anna into his arms, and after a teary release of emotions, they went out to be with the girls, who were getting to know their Aunt Viv (who was only 2 years older than them) and Josie (3 years older). John had brought Alex (4 years older) and Uncle Bry brought Kim (2 years older) for dinner to meet the girls, so it was a lively affair.

They had found out about Alex back in Ninety Five when Chuck was checking records relating to John's original name, Alexander John Coburn, and discovered that the fiancé he'd had to leave behind when he was made to fake his death to start over as John Casey in a black ops group had had a baby girl in August Eighty Nine and had named her Alexandra Johanna McHugh after her father. It was thinking about Emma that convinced him to see them actually (as Kathleen was married now), because he realised that it would have been a slap in the face to her to have his daughter there in Los Angeles and not make an effort to see her when Emma and Chuck agonised every day about not being able to find Sammie.

It was John who was slapped actually, several times, and John found that Kathleen still had a strong right, but once she'd calmed down enough to listen, she found that she could accept his explanation on the basis of the man he was and the fact that he hadn't known anything about their daughter. Alex was twelve now, and John saw her whenever he was in Los Angeles (he hadn't missed the fact that he spent a lot more time here now and tried to let Colonel Beckman know that he appreciated it without either of them admitting that they knew what he was talking about).

After dinner, Di, Roan, Josie, Bry, Kim, John, Alex, Ellie and Jeff all went to the Echo Park apartments (at least buying out the whole block have them plenty of rooms), while Lou took Ellie's room and the girls took the spare room at the house. No-one was really surprised when Anna and Lou came out together in the morning, and Lou was the only one surprised when Chuck pushed a pile of paperwork across for her to sign at the breakfast table. When she just looked at him he spoke. "I'm sorry Lou, I'd just presumed that you'll be living and working with us….."

The others laughed when they saw the temper that they remembered. "Well of course that's what I want to do Chuck! I want our daughters to get to know their father! But what's this Novatech and why the hell do you want me to sign these papers?"

Anna was shaking her head at Chuck with a smile, and he realised that they hadn't explained what was going to Lou, so he took her up to his room to show her the business and building plans for what he wanted to do. When they entered the room, Lou looked around with a smile, because aside from the bigger bed and updated technology, it hadn't changed that much in the last nine years. They'd gone over most of the details by the time the girls appeared in the doorway, as they'd followed the laughter, they loved the look of the building where their Papa said that they'd be living half of the time at least, but they did a perfect synchronised valley girl " _EWWWWWW!_ " when their Mama told them that _this_ was the room that they had been conceived in.

* * *

When everything reopened after Christmas, Louisa Palone was officially listed as the head of Novatech Industries, and Lottie and Charlie were going to the same school as Viv, the same one both of their parents went to up until Mama went to Israel too.

By the time El Castillo (their building) was finished, they'd settled into a comfortable setup, Chuck, Ellie, Anna and Lou and Vicky Dunwoody would have apartments in El Castillo, but stay at the house most of the time to be with the family. Ellie, Jeff, John, Bry, Skip and Jethro and Rick Noble all had apartments at Echo Park, but Bry especially was rarely there. Rick and Vicky had been added to the team by Auntie Di after Nine Eleven because she insisted on beefing up the security with the family and team expansions, so they would be working with the team at El Castillo.

When 'El Castillo' was finished, Mary had made a few more phone calls to stock its armoury to Chuck's requirements, and the new armoury was rather more extensive than the one at the house (especially with what Chuck wanted for the building's active security systems). Even though the others had seen, and had had some input into the plans for El Castillo, they were still awed and amazed when they actually saw how it had come out. The five businesses shared the computer and electronics labs out back, plus the engineering lab for Novatech. They'd settled on Piranha coming under Chuck's umbrella while Lotus was Anna's, Charlemagne was Jeff's, Novatech was Lou's now and Shiloh was Skip's, so they were each the 'boss' of one of the businesses in the building.

As no-one but them got to see the inside the secure garage that took up the remainder of the ground floor, and the different segments were screened off from each other, they brought their large collection of assorted vehicles in from the storage facilities around the city that they had been salted away in. There were a fair number of apparently (but not really) ordinary cars, vans, bikes and the like in there, but there were also millions of dollars worth of supercars, classics and limousines that they maintained to use on missions. (That was the official reason anyway, a good number of these had been collected or built by Chuck for his, Ellie and Anna's use, and John and the others as well to a lesser degree. Taking down dictators and drug and arms dealers and other major crime figures on a regular basis gave them access to their fabulous toys as well as their fortunes, so when he found something he particularly liked he'd often add it to their collection, using the network of identities that he maintained in that world to ship them back to LA.) That was the official reason for having the A109 and Learjet too, maintaining the image with an executive helicopter and jet, but they were both fun to fly and the Learjet was useful for getting around the country.

As amazing as the ground floor was, the 'Dungeon', as Anna had named it (they couldn't argue the logic, as it was only logical for a castle to have a dungeon underneath it) was far more so. For a start, there was the armoury and range on the bottom level, B2, along with the gym, dojo, pool and a plethora of other things. On the upper level, B1, they had the operations centre, meeting rooms, medical centre and whatever else was expected in a base of operations, plus a quite comfortable two bedroom apartment tucked away in one corner, as well as a far more serious computer lab than anything upstairs, enough that Caltech would have been jealous of what they had there.

Of course, the Bananas in Pyjamas posters that Ellie put up in the Dungeon raised more than a few questions, as did the 'Cuddles Avenue' prefix that showed up for access to the Dungeon levels by the private elevators located in the 'executive bathrooms' on the ground floor, but no-one outside of their groups ever saw those. All up, between purchasing the property and the 'renovations' to create the facility, El Castillo had cost over twenty million, Diane had organised allocations for five million for improvements to her group's facilities while the rest was paid for by the family.

Most of level 2 was empty and unfinished, they'd done all the structural work and laid in the plumbing, wiring etc, but everything else was being left until it was needed. Level 3 had been fitted out as a number of quite nice apartments, and Chuck intended to move into the one he'd designed for himself when he had the chance, but he was staying at the house half the time to be with the girls. Anna and Lou had an apartment there too, but when they were there during the week they had to take the girls to school, gymnastics, dance classes and the like in Arcadia.

* * *

The way Chuck had set the systems up in El Castillo, they could access their profiles from anywhere in the building, so he could, say, start something in his office and pick it up in his apartment or down in the Dungeon. There was one window that he had constantly running and accessed quite often, the one that displayed the search engines that were running for Sammie, Jill, the Ice Queen, 'Graham's Enforcer' and the 'Golden Boy'.

About a year after they left Stanford, references to two new players in the CIA started popping up, one, who seemed very much like the Ice Queen, was referred to as 'The Enforcer' or 'Graham's Enforcer', while the other one was referred to as 'The Golden Boy' or 'Graham's Golden Boy'.

The more reports about the Golden Boy he saw, the more questions were raised. The Ice Queen and the Enforcer were obviously hell on wheels, capable of doing just about anything, but while the references to the Golden Boy were usually positive, especially from women, the evidence listed for his missions appeared to contradict them, because while his official achievements were generally impressive, any agents working with him showed up as markedly below than their normal performance and many of them were also listed as being injured or killed.

That was why it made even less sense when he started seeing references to the Enforcer and the Golden Boy working together, why would Graham shackle one of his best operatives with something like _that_? He saw that they were achieving good results together, but what they were achieving together wasn't up to what the Enforcer had been doing on her(?) own, so he couldn't understand why Graham would do that. Everything he'd been told and remembered about Graham said that he was an evil bastard, but he'd never seen any indication of him being stupid, and this definitely appeared to be stupid.

Another thing that bothered him was the fact that references to the Ice Queen seemed to have stopped around the time the Enforcer and the Golden Boy were teamed up, had she been killed on a mission somewhere? He didn't really understand it, but that possibility upset him, as he'd always had this thought in the back of his mind that he'd like to meet this woman, because she sounded incredible. Then... about two years later... there was a sudden spike of new reports about the Ice Queen, with comments about her being free of the tool and back to kicking arses and taking names again, and Chuck had to laugh at himself about how ridiculous it was to feel so relieved when he saw that.


	5. A Pair of Queens

**I shouldn't need to say this, but I probably do. The references to queens and the like do _not_ relate to _anyone_ in the _real_ world, and they're only applied in a derogatory manner to the _character_ Bryce Larkin, _NOT_ the actor who played Larkin.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Meanwhile, Bryce Larkin was at the Farm, bemoaning his fate. About a week after he got Bartowski kicked out, a virus had wiped out his laptop and he lost all the evidence he had on Fleming, what they used to get rid of Bartowski, everything! but Bartowski had already disappeared so he couldn't confirm that that was what he was getting at when he said that he'd get his as he was leaving with his stuff. What Fleming had said about Bartowski not seeming to be too worried about being expelled also seemed to say that he had something up his sleeve, so Bryce got his parents to call in enough favours to get him out of there before the situation embarrassed the family (and more to the point, caught up to _him_ ). They used an excuse about him needing to go back East urgently for specialised medical treatment due to complications arising from blows to the head inflicted by Bartowski in an unprovoked attack as he was leaving to get projected results posted for his final exams and his degrees issued early on that basis.

As soon as he'd left, the CIA's techs scrubbed every reference to him except for his final results and degrees that were kept on file from Stanford's systems, so he pretty much disappeared. Stanford didn't discovered this until Bartowski came back with proof of the fabricated case against him, but when they went to his family to question him about it he'd disappeared to them as well. To all intents and purposes, Bryce Larkin had ceased to exist outside of some code name classified files at the CIA that very few people could access in May 2001.

When he left Stanford, he was supposed to go straight to Project Omaha to get started on the grand plan he had waiting for him though, _not_ to go to the Farm for six to twelve months of torture training! Apparently the ones working on Project Omaha code hadn't managed to finish it yet, so the powers that be decided that the time would be best spent getting the Omaha candidate through all other aspects of his training. With that thought in mind, they sent him to the Farm and told the people running the Farm to push him through the system as a priority recruit.

Unfortunately for Larkin, they also told them that the CIA had a lot riding on him, so they were looking to see him beat the Ice Queen's scores…. because after all, as impressive as she was, she was just a woman. The way Larkin pissed people off with his piss-poor attitude and over-inflated opinion of himself as soon as he got there meant that the word being gleefully passed around about him quickly became that the people at the top expected him to be better than the Ice Queen or else! As a result, Larkin was in constant pain from pretty much the day he arrived, and for all the way he flinched at what he saw had been done to him in the mirror, his ego took more of a battering than anything else.

* * *

Sarah was disappointed, because word was that, just as that SAD guy had said when she was in training, Mowgli had been called in for the operations in Afghanistan just after Nine Eleven, but while she had originally been slated to be sent over there to participate, Graham had changed his mind and decided that her talents would be better used elsewhere. This pissed her off for two reasons, the first was that she'd really been looking forward to meeting this legend that she'd heard so much about, because the SAD and SOG guys who talked about him didn't just respect the hell out of him, they genuinely _liked_ him. The idea that a legendary figure like this could be a 'quiet but nice young guy, nothing like Baloo' intrigued her, because she'd heard enough about this Baloo to know that _he_ was the type of hard-bitten and accomplished warrior who was normally these guys' hero, and he was Mowgli's _sidekick_?

The other reason it pissed her off was that Graham had made it quite clear what he meant by 'talents', but no matter what he said she was _not_ going to screw every suspected terrorist they sent her after. She got the information she was sent after of course, she charmed it out of them if they didn't get too pushy and ripped it out of them by other means if they did, and none of it was important enough to give in to Graham's demands in her opinion. There were a few gory additions to the stories about the Ice Queen from the ones who had to clean up after her though, and these helped dissuade some of those idiots who were determined to bag the Ice Queen to add a notch to their belts, so that was a plus in her book.

She did get to participate in some of the later missions in Afghanistan, but while they were major operations and achieved quite a bit, Mowgli wasn't there so she was pissed at Graham for taking away her chance to meet him. The way they took out some of the hardest sites was what came to be called the 'exploding captive' act, she allowed herself to be captured and dragged into the facility for the usual purposes, but as soon as she was inside she'd make as much mess as possible by taking out as many of them as she could, and the mayhem she caused distracted them enough for the rest of their forces to breach the facility. The beauty of that name was that the other side thought that they were using suicide bombers, so they could keep using it.

Graham did manage to shock her (and Jane) though, because he turned up at their apartment one night a few months after the post Nine Eleven activity had died down and presented her with a medal for her contributions to the big fight, the Distinguished Intelligence Cross. Jane's expression both when she saw the medal and when Graham told Sarah that she was only the second woman to ever get this medal prompted her to ask who the first woman was. Graham just looked at her when she asked that and she was sure that he was going to ignore the question, but eventually he said. "Frost, the one you took most of those records at the Farm off."

That prompted other questions but she knew she'd pushed her luck far enough as it was, so she just thanked him and he left.

When he was gone, they did what they could to circumvent the bugs that they knew would be right through the apartment and Jane explained the significance of that medal to her. Jane was in tears when she asked her to keep it safe for her, and she promised that she would.

* * *

Larkin was furious, he'd shown them on the missions he did after Nine Eleven that he was a real agent, he'd done a damned sight better than the so-called experienced agents he'd been working with, if he did say so himself, but they just sent him straight back here to continue his training when they were done. They even marked his record with some shit about failing to show proper respect to the fallen.

He knew he wasn't handling this as well as he could have, he was doing pretty good at the physical aspects of the training, doing better than most of the other recruits, but it was never good enough in the eyes of the trainers….

He shook his head at that, angry at himself because he had to admit that he'd really screwed up... he _definitely_ should have done his homework before he tried to work the trainers here the same way he had the Professors at Stanford. If he had he would have known that offering sexual favours to men in this type of environment was as good as putting your head on the chopping block.

Even if they _were_ inclined that way, none of them would ever allow that to get out in an environment like this, so that marked him as trouble, and they didn't like trouble. If he hadn't come in as someone's Golden Boy who was slated for something important he would have almost certainly had a fatal accident, but as it was they merely tried to work him to death, referring to him as 'the Queen' whenever other recruits couldn't hear and beating him when they thought they could get away with it.

That was something else that he couldn't understand, no matter how well he'd done, the trainers would just tell him that he hadn't matched the 'other Queen's scores yet so he had to go again. He wanted to tell them to fuck off, but he'd quickly learnt that aching from muscle strain hurt less than the beatings that talking back got him. But the thing was, if they reviled him for being a Queen, why did they all appear to _revere_ this _other_ 'Queen'?

One thing was obvious though, he wasn't going to get to Project Omaha by playing the game by their rules, so he revised his plan and started working the administration staff at the Farm. Even they had to be handled a lot more carefully than anyone at Stanford had though, because enough 'bright' recruits had tried to get around the system that way for them to be watching for it, so he had to move slowly to avoid giving the game away. Not that there was any great hurry, because the only news that ever came through from Project Omaha was that there were more delays.

* * *

Bryce had an incentive to get through this though, that offer he got from Roberts' Uncle Bernie. Fleming had told him that being the successful Omaha Candidate would take him straight to the top of the food chain as an agent, he'd live the high life, all those other bastards would bow down to him and he could have any of those beautiful agents he wanted…. from then on, the only cock getting sucked would be _his_!

While that had sounded pretty good though, what Fulcrum was offering was so much better. _Their_ offer was ten million up front and anything he asked for if he brought them the result of Project Omaha once it had successfully been loaded into him. Let those other idiots worship God and country, his allegiance was to Bryce Larkin! He hadn't needed any time to think it over, he'd promised 'Uncle Bernie' to contact them as soon as he had it loaded.

He could see it now, the day he got to have everything he wanted and started extracting his retribution on everyone who'd gotten in his way or crossed him, and Bartowski and his parents were right up there on _that_ list, but he had to get through this damned spy school for that to happen!

He had too much to lose to risk getting caught, so it took him months to carefully coax the admins into starting to modify his records for him, and even then he couldn't afford to take anything but small steps, he'd have to get to the point where he was close to passing a given course before they'd put in a passing grade for him into the system, and then some time after that he'd get one of the others to amend those results to show that he'd smashed it.

No matter what he tried, he couldn't find out who this other Queen that the damned trainers were measuring him against was, so he had to make guesses about how high to push his scores to show on paper at least that he'd beaten him, without making them so high that alarm bells would go off. The trainers just presumed that the ones who sent Larkin here were getting impatient and told the ones running the Farm up to push the Queen through faster when they saw his records, because he had actually passed most of their courses and was above average if he were being compared to the general recruits after all the extra motivation they'd given him, they were just using the mandate that he had to outperform the Ice Queen to have fun punishing the little bastard by forcing him to chase a standard that he'd never have any hope of reaching…. shit, they couldn't think of _anyone_ who could outperform the Ice Queen, unless all those legends about Mowgli were true.

The non-physical courses were generally easier to get through for Bryce, some he got through OK, others he struggled in, but it was easier to convince people to give him passing grades for them, and then he'd just get the admins to alter the scores to what he believed he deserved.

* * *

All up, it took Larkin eighteen months to get through the farm showing anything like the type of scores that were expected of him. The people running the farm knew for a fact that the little tool hadn't earned the scores that had been recorded for him but, much like the trainers, they just presumed that someone above them had organised it so that their 'Golden Boy' looked good on paper. Truth be told, they all just wanted to be shot of him, so they didn't question it. Their parting words to him might have been framed as congratulatory, but Larkin was bright enough to get the message 'Don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out Douche!'.

Larkin didn't care! He was finally back on track, heading to Project Omaha to make his way to his rightful place at the top of the heap.

While no-one would tell him where Project Omaha was based, from the uniforms and facilities there and what he'd seen from the plane on the way in, he was on a military base somewhere close to DC. Larkin wasn't worried, he'd find someone who could get word out to Fulcrum for him when the time came.

What he _was_ worried about though was that these _scientists_ wouldn't accept anything at face value and wanted to check everything (or rather, _confirm the results_ as they were so fond of saying) time and time again. Luckily, they decided to first put him through months of training intended to maximise his image retention abilities because they still hadn't gotten the code of the Intersect, as the program was apparently called, working to their satisfaction.

As a result, he spent his days working on variations of Fleming's Subliminal Imagery module and other spy stuff, as well as exercising and sparring. Luckily he could hold his own as far as the athletics and sparring went and there was no scoring on the other lessons he was going through, so the only thing he had to worry about was that Subliminal Imagery crap. As far as that was concerned though, they were giving him the means to get on top of this. If _Bartowski_ could ace that test without any preparation, he was _sure_ to top his results after all of these exercises he was working through. He'd spent enough time stuck with that dweeb to know that he was nothing special, that was why he could never understand what Roberts or the professors saw in him, but at least Roberts came to her senses in the end and saw who was the best.

After about four months of this, the scientists decided that they were ready to start trying Intersect tests, so they had Larkin do the Subliminal Imagery test again. When he only scored in the mid-eighties, they wanted to know what the hell was going on, and made him do it over, and over, and over again. The best result he could get was in the high eighties, and that was with making good guesses on the ones he had no idea about.

* * *

This of course raised serious questions about the discrepancies in the results. The CIA went straight to Stanford to find out where Fleming was so that they could drag him in to explain, but the people at Stanford swore that they had no idea where he'd gone when he left in 2001, so the CIA started searching for him. The very few people at Stanford who _did_ know what had happened to Fleming were keeping their lips zipped, because that Bartowski business had cost the university fourteen million and done quite a bit of damage to their reputation, even with everything they did to keep it quiet. If it ever got out how many students Fleming had used falsified records and the promise of assistance to pressure into providing sexual favours to him over the years, the university would be ruined! The number of _underaged_ students that Fleming had preyed on made it even worse, because he seemed to have singled them out. Special Agent Harris had handed over copies of all of the recordings and altered records for all the students that Fleming had scammed into giving him sexual favours over a two and a half year period, and the university people were horrified. To be fair, some of them _were_ actually horrified about what Fleming had been doing, but others were only thinking about what would happen to the university if the families of those and other students ever found about this.

That was why George Fleming had been buried in prison, with friends of the university ensuring that a 'clerical error' was made to alter his name enough to almost guarantee that he wouldn't be found. The plan had been to keep him in there long enough for any of the students he'd preyed on to be long gone and then release him, but some of the other prisoners had overheard the morally outraged Dean from Stanford shouting at him about forcing underage girls to have sex with him and word had quickly spread around the prison that he was a child molester. Men in prison appeared to hate child molesters even more than anyone else, possibly because they couldn't protect their own children from them while they're locked away, and that had made Fleming a target. He was shivved to death about three months after he got there and cremated under the name that he was incarcerated as, so George Fleming had disappeared and the CIA could get no answers from him.

When they couldn't find Fleming, and no matter how many SI tests he did, Larkin couldn't get higher than the mid to high eighties, they started looking into reasons for his score dropping. They debated whether the year and a half of intensive training at the Farm may have caused it, but that idea was dismissed when it was pointed out that he'd been out of that for over four months. In the end, it was the lies that he and his family had made up to get him out of Stanford before the truth could catch up with him that were accepted as the answer, because they'd gotten doctors' reports to say that multiple blows to the head with some sort of blunt object had caused head trauma and that was why he was being rushed back east for specialised treatment.

The neurologists that Project Omaha consulted opined that head trauma of that nature could indeed result in the lower results that they were seeing here, so they sat down to debate how to proceed. The Omaha scientists argued that if the candidate had the native capacity required, they should load the Intersect and do what they could to get it working. Graham and other senior CIA people on the other hand looked at the enormous investment that they now had in Larkin (especially if you included two years of Project Omaha's budget that had been spent pushing to get the Intersect working for him) and his results from the Farm, which were outstanding on paper at least, and overruled the scientists. The decision was made to send Larkin into the field and make use of his exceptional skills there, in hope of getting some value out of the investment they had in him.

So, in March 2003, Bryce Larkin became Director Graham's newest Golden Boy field agent.

* * *

What would have surprised the people who actually knew him was that Larkin was regarded as quite a successful field agent, because while not brilliant himself, he did have a genius for finding people who could get him what he needed, and make him look good. He also had a definite knack for finding scapegoats to cover for him whenever he screwed up. The fact that he could charm the pants off most men and women to get what he needed and had no qualms about doing whatever it took to get the job done and advance his own interests without a second thought didn't hurt him at all either.

What that added up to was that by most standards, Larkin actually was a reasonable agent, but on paper he was one of the best, which was in part how he ended up getting what he'd been after for four years, because he was sitting in Langston Graham's office in early 2005, being introduced to his new partner, Sarah Walker, the Ice Queen.

Of course, the main reason was that Graham had to cover his arse, because it was on record that it had cost the CIA umpteen millions to get his Golden Boy to this point so people were asking why he wasn't delivering anything like what would be needed to justify that kind of investment. On the other hand, Sarah Walker's achievements were enough to make a dozen ordinary agents look good, so the plan was to use her to bring out the ability that Larkin's record said he had, and put an end to those questions about why that much money had been wasted on him.

* * *

The first time Larkin made a move on Sarah, she'd made herself stop just short of doing permanent damage to him, but they still had to put a cast on his wrist to help the healing process. He backed off for a while after that, but no matter what she did to try and make it clear to him that she wasn't, and never would be, interested in him…. he refused to believe that she could resist his charms so he kept trying, even if he wasn't interested in her as anything but a conquest.

The next two years were like purgatory for Sarah, not quite hell but not too far off. For a start, she'd had to work harder on the missions to cover for the failings of her 'partner', whether it was due to being incapable of doing what was required of him, or screwing up because he refused to do what he was told or was trying to charm her or some other woman, so she always had to put in the extra effort to ensure that their mission succeeded. In the reports that were filed though, _he_ was the one who was given credit for the success of all their missions! She'd torn into Graham more than once about that, and he'd seemed genuinely confused when he said he'd look into it, but she'd never gotten a real answer from him about what was going on.

Then, of course, there were Larkin's repeated attempts to get her into bed, no matter how many times that she told him that she wasn't interested, and the way he'd push their 'public displays of affection' on missions to the limit, and beyond. He'd almost gotten them thrown out of functions where they were running missions more than a few times when he pushed things way past appropriate boundaries, but no matter how much she hurt him for that as soon as they were somewhere she could get away with it, and she'd put him in hospital a few times, he was still certain that she was just putting on an act to pretend that she wasn't love with him (his words), the man was a lunatic.

He'd gone too far this time though, she was going to kill him! They were just about to slip away to go after their mission objective at the consulate when he'd gotten them thrown out of the consulate and blown the whole mission by putting his hand up her dress and trying to get into her pants in plain sight of everyone in the ball room! The rest of the team had to stop her from killing him for what he'd tried to do to her, let alone blowing the mission, when they were outside. She could see on their faces that they wanted to the same to the bastard, but they hustled her straight onto a plane back to the States to prevent an incident in country.

Graham normally wouldn't have taken the way she screamed at him in his office, but he was too stunned by what he saw on that video to react, as he couldn't believe that Larkin could have been stupid enough to do that either…. so he sent her off to Europe on another mission to calm down before she exploded all over Washington and put Larkin on suspension when he was dragged back in disgrace.

* * *

Bryce didn't know what went wrong, one minute he was getting into the groove and everything was going well, and the next they were being thrown out of the Consulate and that crazy bitch was trying to kill him. And their fucking _support_ team disrespecting him that way was just icing on the cake! They'd get theirs, oh yeah they'd get theirs! By the time he got through with the reports he was putting together about _them_ they'd be lucky if Graham just sent them to the North Pole!

He was plotting his revenge all the way back to the States, but the second the door of Graham's office closed behind him, Graham ripped into him. "What the fuck's wrong with you Larkin?"

OK, that was bad, because Graham didn't swear, ever. "What do you mean Sir?"

"Did you, or didn't you, blow the whole fucking mission by sticking your fucking hand up Walker's dress and trying to get into her pants in plain sight of everyone in the fucking Consulate Ballroom so that both of you were thrown out?"

" _No_ _sir!_ "

"You're sure about that?"

" _Yes sir!_ "

"That's funny, because that's _exactly_ what Walker says you did! And then there's _this!_ "

Graham hit a key and abruptly shoved the screen to spin it around to display the security video from the Consulate. Walker was obviously telling him to back off when he put his hand up her dress, and in doing so he pushed it far enough out of the way for the camera to catch him trying to put his hand in her pants. Luckily, everyone around them had apparently been too aghast with his actions to work out that the knives she had strapped to her upper thigh were anything more than some kind of garter, and she only froze in shock at his actions for a moment before she pulled away from him and got herself covered up. The video went on to show both of them being led from the room immediately after that by guards and officials, her much more politely than he was as they were obviously apologising to her but explaining that she'd have to leave as well, even though she'd done nothing wrong.

When the video was done, Graham said. "I really want to shoot you for fucking up my operations this badly and making all of us look like fools Larkin, but I have to concede that no-one deserves that right more than Walker, so you'll be on suspension until she gets back from Europe. If you try to leave town, you'll be tracked down like a dog and dragged back, or dealt with if you resist! In fact I think I'll ask Beckman if she will loan me her pit bull to do it for me, I understand that Casey has issues with you and is just itching for a chance to shoot you! Get out of my sight! You'll be called to answer for your actions when Walker returns!"

As Bryce started to turn away, Graham barked "Wait! Give me your gun and credentials! You'd really have pull a rabbit out of your hat to have any chance of ever being an agent again after this, and frankly I don't see you being up to it!"

When Larkin handed them over sullenly, Graham barked. "Now get out!"

By the time he got to the front door, Graham had remembered something else and called down to the guards, so they took the keys of his SL 55 off him and he had to get a cab back to his apartment.

* * *

Larkin was two thirds of the way through the bottle of cognac when he remembered the card he had hidden away in a safe place. Fulcrum had pretty much cut him loose when he couldn't deliver the Omaha Project to them, but they did say to call them when he had something worthwhile to offer. Some of the admins he'd been screwing to make sure that their mission reports on file credited their achievements to him had told him where the Intersect Project, which was the next generation of the Omaha Project, was based now. He was sure that he'd be able to get enough out of them to get him into the facility, because those pathetic bitches would do anything for him.

Up until now he'd been the rising star of the CIA as Graham's Golden Boy so they had been a better bet, but even he could see that he was dead to them now…. Literally dead if Graham let Walker do what she wanted, so it was definitely time to move on. He was hoping that so long as he gave Fulcrum what they wanted they'd protect from the CIA…. and from Casey, he thought with a shudder, because Graham was right about that! He didn't know why, but that bastard definitely wanted to kill him too!

With that, he got up and dug that card out of its hiding place to call that Bernie character and make a deal. Bernie was _very_ interested when Bryce told him that he could get them the Intersect, and promised that _if_ he could deliver it this time, he'd get everything they'd promised before, so Bryce got to work.

It took him a few weeks, but he got all the information he needed out of those admins and found out who he needed to pick up to get access to this 'Intersect facility' by cruising the right bars. He also screwed a few of the CIA techs to get the type of hardware he'd need to get the Intersect programs and other files out of the facility and then went hunting. He did love a man in uniform, and he had so much fun with that boy that he almost regretted snapping his neck…. almost, but he had a big pay day ahead of him with this and he wasn't going to chance leaving anyone alive to raise an alarm or identify him later, even if it _had_ been the best sex he'd had in years. Damned CIA, they'd forced him so far into the closet to maintain the expected lady killer image that he hadn't been able to have a really good time since he'd left Stanford…. oh well, that'd all be over soon, he'd have anything and anyone he wanted when this was done.

* * *

Bryce couldn't believe his luck at first, how easily this was going. Mike, the one who's card he'd taken, had had an all access pass and that got him past all the checks, or at least it did until one overzealous guard noted that he wasn't the person on the card. He'd managed to take the dweeb out, but not before he'd taken some damage himself, and the bastard had also set off the alarm, so the job suddenly got a lot more difficult. He managed to get into the room that Mike had told him had direct access to the servers though and jammed the electronic lock to keep them out until he'd gotten what he needed. Looking at the device he was downloading this shit onto, he had to laugh, as he'd had the techs set him up with a backup plan in case he couldn't get out of there with the physical device, this was to send the files to Bartowski, and then recover them from him later after he'd eluded pursuit.

The device would compress the files enough to be hidden in one of those stupid zork files that they'd sent to each other when they were pretending to be buddies. He doubted that Bartowski would be able to unlock it, because he'd barely remembered the correct response to the prompt himself, but if he did, well bye bye Bartowski, because that would activate the program and Bernie had said that none of the test subjects for this thing had survived so far. If Bartowski couldn't open it, he'd just go in and beat the shit out of him for the hell of it, then kill him and take the Intersect program to Fulcrum to start his new life.

Maybe he'd take Devon off Bartowski's sister too, just to rub salt in the wound… that had been a surprise, to see that Devon was with the geek's sister when he was setting things up to finish the job of ruining Bartowski because he'd found out that the geek wasn't suffering as much as he was supposed to…. he'd gotten him kicked out of Stanford just before he could get his degrees, made sure that _everyone_ knew that he'd cheated his way through uni _and_ that he took his girlfriend off him and showed her what a real man was, so the dweeb was _supposed_ to be crying in the gutter, but he wasn't….

Yeah, Bartowski was still working for his loser uncle's stupid computer repair business, but he was also supposedly working with a handful of shelf companies with impressive names that his buddies had obviously set up to try and make themselves look more important and he seemed to have taken up with the chink after he took Roberts off of him, so he wasn't suffering anywhere near as much as he was supposed to be doing!

Seeing Devon with a woman had been a surprise, but he was probably just putting on an act to try and stop Mommy and Daddy pulling the plug on him... They must have sent him off to the west coast to stop him embarrassing the family like his own folks had, but Devon had his talents in bed so he could get some enjoyment out of him _and_ hurt the geek's sister at the same time by taking him off her... yeah, that sounded like a plan.

Worst case scenario, if he didn't manage to get out and Bartowski couldn't open the file, the authorities would track it to him and charge him with treason, which was still a good solution in his book! But the plan was to get the intel off him, kill him, break the sister and then go off to lead the sort of life he was meant to.

As soon as the download finished, he stuffed the device into his pocket and started the timer on the bomb that Fulcrum gave him to destroy everything left there, then he started running for the door. The concussion wave from the bomb hit the door a second before he did and blew it out. He was a little dazed from the explosion, but recovered quickly enough to pick himself up and get out of there, taking out any guards he saw along the way.

He'd almost made it, he was in the car park for fuck's sake, when a shot hammered into his chest. He knew he was dying as he was laying there, so he struggled to get the device out of his pocket and send the transmission, hoping that Bartowski _would_ manage to open the file so he could take him with him. He'd just hit 'Send' and saw it processing when a face appeared over him that made him wonder whether he was already in hell, because it was John Fucking Casey! When he heard the device go 'phzzzztttttt' as it completed the transmission and fried itself though, he laughed weakly up at him "It's too late Casey, it's gone!" Then he faded.

Casey looked down at Larkin in regret, because killing the little bastard this way hadn't been anywhere near as satisfying as what he'd been looking forward to. He picked up the device that Larkin had been holding, it looked fried, but hopefully the techs could recover enough from it to tell them where the file had been sent to. He was sure that Chuck could recover something from it, but it would have to go through the normal channels first.

* * *

Chuck went up to his room after dinner to get ready to go out, as they'd all come home tonight for his birthday dinner and somehow he'd allowed himself to be talked into going clubbing with Ellie, Anna, Lou and Skip afterwards, though he couldn't quite work out why doing something he hated would 'have' to be part of _his_ birthday celebrations. He decided to check for emails before he hit the shower, and one of them caught his eye, Bryce Fucking Larkin? What the hell was _Larkin_ doing sending Chuck an email?

He checked it for malware of course, especially the attachment, but as nothing came up, he opened the zork file to see what it said, because after all, everyone deserved a chance for redemption didn't they? Even Larkin? He read the prompt and automatically put in the proscribed response, and then images started flashing up on the screen.

Ellie, Anna, Lou and Skip were waiting with the girls downstairs for ages after they got ready, but when Ellie started to get up angrily to go and get him, Lottie stopped her, saying that she'd get him before she hurried off to Chuck's room. She tapped on the door, and as she opened it she was saying "Papa, Auntie Ellie's getting angry, you _said_ that you'd go out with them so you have t…."

When she saw him on the floor, she cried _"Papa!"_ and ran over anxiously to check his vitals, and allowed herself a moment to collapse in relief that they were strong before she jumped up and ran to the door to scream " _AUNTIE_ _ELLIE, GET UP HERE! SOMETHING's HAPPENED TO_ _PAPA_ _!_ "

It seemed that Auntie Ellie and Grandma were there before she finished, she always forgot how fast they could move when they had to, and Ellie checked him over thoroughly. She couldn't find anything wrong with him, but he wasn't coming to so they decided to take him to El Castillo and do a full battery of tests on him in the medical centre there. It didn't take long for Mary and Ellie to get Chuck downstairs and into the car between them, and fifteen minutes later they had him in the medical centre, hooking him up to what appeared to be every medical monitor known to man.

They still couldn't find anything wrong with him, and the only problem he seemed to have when he _did_ come too, hours later, was a splitting headache, which wasn't helped by the way they were all screeching at him about how fucking stupid it had been to open an email from Bryce Fucking Larkin when he told them what he'd done.

They eventually shut up about that and he went upstairs to go to bed, Anna going with him to keep an eye on him through the night. When Mary and Emma went home, they were at all surprised when Ellie, Lou and the girls said that they were staying there because they wanted to be nearby, just in case. Mary and Emma would have stayed too if they could have done any more than they could, but Ellie was the one he needed for any medical issues and Anna, Lou and the girls would be watching him like hawks so they went home to handle things there and let Di and the others know what had happened.


	6. New Beginnings

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world not a Disney Princess tale.**

When Sarah finished the mission and wound up everything in Sarajevo successfully, Aunt Jane told her that she couldn't put off coming back any longer, because _Director_ Graham was getting quite insistent about her coming back to wind up the Larkin matter. "I have been forbidden to give you any more assignments over there, and ordered to instruct you to return to the States immediately Agent Walker."

Sarah bit her tongue, as Aunt Jane's formal wording said that the call was almost certainly being monitored, but she had caught the only slack in what was being said, as she was specifically being ordered to return to the _States_ , not _Langley_! So she responded accordingly.

"Yes Ma'am, I will return to the States on the first available flight."

With that, they would up the call, then she made two more calls, to Carina and Zondra, hoping that they'd be free so she could find a way to occupy herself away from Langley, Graham and Larkin. Unfortunately El Diablo Rojo was in the middle of a high profile mission in Columbia, and while Il Martello di Dio was in the States, she was in the middle of a high profile case as well.

Sarah swore at that, and grudgingly conceded that she had to go back. She couldn't really complain, Aunt Jane had found her a dozen more single agent missions around Europe since the one Graham sent her on to let off steam, so she'd been here for over five weeks, but Graham had obviously worked out what they were doing if he gave Aunt Jane a direct order to bring her home.

With that she went to arrange her ticket back to the States, but on the spur of the moment she changed her flight to San Diego, because that was about as far away from Langley as she could be while obeying the order to get back to the States. After all, she hadn't been back since she was taken away, and she'd suddenly had an overwhelming need to see where this had started again. Graham may even be able to see the irony of it, considering that was where he trapped her into this world.

The first thing she did in San Diego was pick up a gun because she felt naked without one, then she hired herself a nice Porsche cabriolet for a bit of fun (putting it on the card she'd used for the last mission because she knew that it would attract less attention than one of her emergency cards), and went for a trip down memory lane. It didn't take long for her to decide that this had been a bad idea, because where she'd been living as Jenny Burton was somewhere in the middle of a sea of tract homes now, and she really had no interest in seeing James Buchanan High.

Sarah didn't have too many good memories about San Diego, but it _had_ been the closest thing to a home she'd had since her father took her away when she was seven…. that made her remember the last place that she could remember being truly happy, when she was at Auntie Mary's with Charlie, and she suddenly needed to see it again. She decided that driving to San Francisco would help her clear her head, and hopefully help her keep off Graham's radar, so she pointed the Porsche at the I-5.

* * *

Halfway to Los Angeles though her phone rang and she answered it on speaker, thinking that it must be Aunt Jane. When she heard Graham's voice she almost hung up, but she wasn't quite angry enough to do something that stupid.

"Walker, where are you?"

"On my way back Sir."

"Are you in America?"

"Yes"

"Thank Christ for that! I need you to get to Los Angeles as fast as you can, Larkin stole something and sent it to someone there, it _has_ to be retrieved. We don't know exactly who or where it's been sent to yet, but we should have that information by the time you get there. You need to be there by tomorrow at the latest, can you do that?"

Sarah looked up at the mile marker she was currently passing and smiled to herself.

"Yes, I think so sir."

"Good, we'll have the information sent through to you as soon as we have it, all we have so far is a name, Bartowski."

"Yes sir."

"Walker, I'm depending on you!"

"Yes sir."

With that, Graham grunted and cut the call.

Sarah scowled at the phone when he was gone, but thought to herself that if she was operating over here for a few days, at least she wouldn't have to see him, so there was a silver lining to this.

* * *

By the time she reached Los Angeles, she'd received a few messages with information about the target, apparently it was a Chuck Bartowski, and he owned and operated a small hole in the wall tech business in Pasadena. The last message included the address, and a note to the effect that Bartowski had been Larkin's room mate and best buddy at Stanford. Funny, while he'd talked about Stanford incessantly (presumably trying to impress her with the fact that he went to _Stanford_ , as she'd never mentioned Harvard), Larkin had never mentioned that name? Oh well, she just had to get in, gain this guy's confidence and get whatever Larkin sent him. He might even give her a reason to shoot him if he was anything like Larkin, _t_ _hat_ thought made her smile, she knew that there was a reason that the first thing she'd done was to get herself a gun!

She'd stopped along the way to change into a skirt, blouse and heels that were more sexy secretary cosplay than professional, but just tame enough to be taken as a legitimate business outfit with her hair in a bun and glasses. If this guy _was_ anything like Larkin though, it should be enough to have the blood rushing to his little head and make him a little more malleable when she engaged him.

She found the business and frowned to herself, because this looked a hell of a lot more upmarket than she'd been expecting from the information she'd been sent... oh well, there was no point in trying to clarify the information as she knew that she had everything the analysts had scraped together... She thought about calling Pete Tong to see if he could get her anything because Pete was smarter than the analysts but shook her head, she wasn't supposed to be operating on US soil anyway so getting it over and done with quickly was the best approach, with that she quickly ran though a few scenarios in her head, undid another button on her blouse and headed for the building. It didn't take too long to find the right door, though finding any doors on a building completely faced with mirror glass had been interesting. She was uncomfortable with the fact that she was going into what was obviously a secure building without any information about what was inside, but mentally shrugged, thinking 'worst comes to worst, they die or I do', and pressed the button on the intercom for Piranha Security & Technology.

The woman who answered the intercom buzzed her in but when she saw her, she obviously wasn't a receptionist, so she must work with Bartowski.

Sarah plastered a suitably polite smile on her face and said."Hello, I'm Sarah Walker, my company needs a piece of work done and one of our associates recommended your firm as the best people to talk to about it. I was told that I'd need to speak to Mister Bartowski?"

The initial look of lustful appreciation that crossed the woman's face had quickly changed to confusion, as if she was trying to remember something, but she raised her eyebrow at that, so Sarah had obviously said something wrong there, then she turned her head and called out. "Chuck, there's a…. lady here to see you!"

A very tall man with good shoulders and a mop of curly brown hair wandered out of one of the offices at that with his head down, engrossed in reading something as he walked, but he was saying good naturedly "Anna, we put those intercoms in for a reason, it's much more professional than just shouting across the office."

When he finished reading whatever it was he was so interested in, he looked up with a pleasant smile on his face and Sarah froze. She knew that smile, she knew those eyes. " _Charlie?_ "

He froze at that too, dropping what he had in his hand. "Sammie?"

The Asian woman whipped around to stare at Sarah with the confusion fading from her face. " _That's_ it! You're Auntie Em's daughter!"

* * *

None of them said anything for a while, she and Charlie just stood there looking at each other, aside from Sarah glancing at this other woman, trying to work out how she knew her mother.

Then Chuck said "Anna, call Auntie Em!"

At that the woman nodded and ran into the office that was presumably Chuck's.

Now that he'd found his voice, Chuck asked "Where have you been? We've been looking for you but could never find you."

Sarah shook her head. "I was on the road with Dad until I was fifteen, then he got arrested when I was finishing high school and I was made an offer I couldn't refuse…."

"By the CIA!"

"How do you know that?"

"We found the reports about Jack Burton's arrest in San Diego a couple of months later because they'd been suppressed, just after you graduated from high school and disappeared. The way that everything had been scrubbed screamed the CIA but we couldn't find any references to any of the names we knew of for you in their systems either, and Uncle Joe didn't know anything about what happened to you when we sent someone in to ask about you..." his anger as he muttered "or care!" was obvious.

Sarah shook her head, but firmed her shoulders. "Yes, I've been in the CIA for the past nine years, and that's why I'm here, you're Chuck Bartowski now?"

Chuck nodded

"Did you get something from Bryce Larkin recently?"

"Yeah, I got an email from him…."

Sarah cut him off. "I need that email Charlie, it's government property."

Chuck shook his head "It's gone, I opened it to see what Larkin had sent me, because I thought that it may be some form of apology, but it destroyed itself when I opened it."

"What do you mean destroyed itself, and what was he apologising for?"

"It fried the computer, or it would have if it had been a physical computer, and no trace of the email was left afterwards. He wasn't apologising, at least I didn't see any trace of an apology, but as for why, that'd be the fact that as far as he knew he got me thrown out of university when he framed me for cheating and screwed my girlfriend."

"He slept with your girlfriend?"

"No, I said as far as he knew he did, she wasn't actually my girlfriend."

Sarah started to say "What….?" but Anna had come back out of the office and snapped. "She was _my_ girlfriend. When we got to Stanford, there were a lot of anti-homo attacks and rapes going on and all the guys immediately started sniffing after Jill, so Chuck agreed to pretend to be her boyfriend to try to protect her, protect us, from all of that shit."

She glanced at Chuck and went on in a softer tone. "He hasn't had a real girlfriend since I met him back in middle school."

Sarah looked at her, remembering one of Larkin's stories "Jill Roberts?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"He told a lot of stories in the two years we were together…." She saw Chuck freeze out of the corner of her eye and turned to him. "No! We were partners, that's all!"

When he relaxed she continued. "Anyway, he was boasting about banging her to round out his top five after her loser boyfriend got kicked out for cheating..."

She glanced at the woman. "Sorry."

Chuck growled. "Yeah, he was pissed off when he found out that the sex tape he made didn't show anything!"

* * *

Just then they heard running from further back in the offices and Sarah grabbed her pistol from the back of the waistband of her skirt as she backed up to the wall, trying to cover the two of them and the direction the noise was coming from. When the two women burst into the office, though, she let her hand fall to her side as she said "Mama?"

Emma ran to her and she dropped the pistol as she moved to embrace her. Neither of them could speak for a while, but when she could, Sarah asked "Mama, how are you here? Graham kept telling me he had you!"

Emma shook her head with tears in her eyes. "No Honey, Graham never had me. I was looking for you for a bit over a year after your father took you away, then your Auntie Di told me that Uncle Stefan had disappeared as well…. Auntie Mary was sent to Russia about the same time I left to look for you and she was trapped there for about a year and a half... Anyway, I came back and then we all started a new life down here, because we've all had problems."

Sarah hadn't noticed how Mary and Chuck had frozen when she said 'Graham' (Emma hadn't registered that either, she was too excited that she had her baby back), but she certainly noted the tone when Mary said "Graham, Langston Graham? You work for him?" because she registered the anger as a threat and pushed her mother behind her.

Chuck took note of Sarah's stance and from that knew that she was a dangerous woman now, and he suddenly put two and two together. "Oh no! _You're_ Graham's Enforcer?"

Sarah whipped her head around to look at him. "How do you know that name Charlie?"

Her distraction gave Emma the opportunity to break free of her grip and step out from behind her. "Because he's been hacking into the CIA's systems, along with everyone else's, for over fifteen years now, trying to find you!"

Sarah stared at her mother, and then back at Chuck, just as he made another realisation. "If you're Graham's Enforcer, then _Larkin_ must be his Golden Boy!"

"Not any more he isn't! John shot him last night!"

They looked up at that to see Diane on the screen, but they had no idea how long she'd been connected.

* * *

"Would you like to tell me why you would be so stupid as to open anything you got from Bryce Larkin, and why your mother was the one who had to tell me me about it Chuck?"

"I made a mistake, _alright_? I was thinking that he may have been reaching out to apologise for all that shit at Stanford, and that everyone deserves a chance to do the right thing…."

He was cut off my Sarah's snort and turned a 'not you too?' look on her. She met his eye without backing down and said "Charlie, Bryce Larkin wouldn't recognise the right thing if you slapped him in the face with it, and if you _could_ make him see it, he'd just try to to do the opposite!"

The others laughed when Anna said "Yep, she knows Larkin alright!", but Chuck didn't.

As she thought that this was going in a bad direction, Diane tried to bring it back to what happened of the night before. "I'm sorry Chuck, John had no idea that your name was in the device that Larkin used to transmit the Intersect files, and he handed it in as per protocols to see what the techs could get out of it. The only techs on hand were CIA people, and Graham didn't see fit to share the information with me until just now, obviously trying to make sure that his people got there first. By the way Sammie, how _did_ you get there so quickly? Graham assured me that they only got the first details out of the device a couple of hours ago?"

"I was driving up from San Diego because I wanted to go see Auntie Mary's house when he called me, he did say that all they had at that time was the name Bartowski and that it was in Los Angeles, so he may have been telling you the truth about that."

Diane nodded "That does make me feel a little better, John is taking off from Andrews in an C Thirty Seven as we speak to try to get there in time to head off Graham's infamous Enforcer, Sarah Walker. I can't tell you how relieved I am that to see who you really are."

"Auntie Di, what are you wearing a uniform for? Who are you actually?" (Only then did Diane realise that Sammie was flying blind because she was sitting at her desk without her jacket.)

"Oh I'm sorry Honey, I forgot that you never knew me as anything but Auntie Di. I'm Major General Diane Beckman, United States Air Force, the NSA's co-Director of the Intersect project and Director of the Special Projects Group."

She paused. "I'm so sorry Emma, I never thought it would take us this long to locate her."

Chuck interjected "Well, strictly speaking, we didn't Auntie Di, she located us!", but Emma smiled wanly as she put her arm around her daughter.

At that point, Mary said "Why don't we take this discussion downstairs, where it's more secure?"

They all nodded and Chuck said he'd see them down there in a few minutes after he'd gotten things sorted out.

* * *

As soon as Sarah stepped out of the lift, Ellie barrelled up to her, as she'd always regarded her as her little sister and had missed her as much as anyone except for Chuck and Auntie Em.

After she'd greeted Ellie, Sarah looked around and asked "Where's Uncle Stefan Nora?"

They all went quiet for a moment and then Ellie said. "He's in Washington with his therapist Sammie, he tried something experimental on himself about six months after you were taken away, and they've been trying to fix him ever since."

Sarah glanced at Anna and lowered her voice. "What about her girlfriend? I got the impression that there was something off in the way they were talking about her?"

Ellie glanced at Anna as well and said "Something happened and she left after they graduated." She hesitated and then went on quietly "Sammie, no matter what it looks like with Anna, she and Chuck are friends, best friends, but nothing more than that. Chuck pretended to be Anna's boyfriend all through their teenage years to cover for her and Jill. Yes, they've shared bedrooms, bathrooms and beds hundreds of times over the last fifteen years but they're not together that way, they're just a rather unusual twist on the traditional idea of best friends…. And there's something else I need to tell you about Anna's current partner but…."

Sarah looked at her "Why are you telling me this Nora?"

"Because I don't know about you, but there's never been anyone but you for him! He's looked for you every day since you left! If that isn't one sided, I didn't want to risk letting something that has never effected what he feels for you to interfere with it."

Sarah glanced at Anna again "She tried to tell me something similar upstairs when she explained why he pretended to be Jill's boyfriend at Stanford."

Ellie looked at her "Well?"

"Well what?"

" _Is_ it one sided?"

Sarah blushed as she tried to think of how to answer "No, I've thought about him often, and there's never been anyone else for me either, but what I've had to do Nora, I don't know whether we can get past that…."

"Sammie, with what we've been through, we've all done lots of things that we don't think we can be forgiven for, Chuck as much as anyone, when the time comes, just talk about it…. Damn it, I have to tell you before they get here!"

"Look... when we first came down here and started school at Arcadia, Chuck became really close with the other nerds at the school, Anna, Lou and Skip. They thought Chuck was the same age as them because they added a couple of years to both our ages to help hide us… Anyway, when Lou and Anna started coming into their teens their hormones started kicking in and…. Well they wanted to experiment... just as friends because they knew that Chuck's heart was already taken by _YOU_ , the girl he looked for every day! and Chuck agreed because he cared for, cares for them a lot. While they both said that it was really nice, being with Chuck just didn't click for them, so they experimented with each other as well, and they found what really worked for them."

"Then a couple of months later, Lou and her family suddenly disappeared without a word to anyone, and we found out later that they'd emigrated to Israel. Anna and Chuck were really upset about that, and both of them thought it was because of the experimentation… about a year later Jill joined their little group and she and Anna became partners. Chuck pretended to be Anna's boyfriend and Skip, who's gay too by the way, pretended to be Jill's boyfriend right though high school to keep everyone else from working out that Anna, Jill and Skip were gay. When Chuck, Anna and Jill got to Stanford, that changed…"

Sarah nodded. "Anna told me about that."

Ellie nodded. "Skip went to UCLA, where I was, so Chuck was allocated Larkin as his room mate up there, and the girls had fun stirring him about having a gay room mate even without Skip..."

Sarah cut her off. "What do you mean, gay? Do you know how many times that bastard tried to get me into bed? And how many other women he screwed?"

Ellie nodded again. "I can guess, Skip met his boyfriend Jethro when he stopped me damaging the idiot because he was coming onto me and wouldn't take no for an answer, and I know that Jethro screwed a number of girls in our class to cover up the fact that he was gay. But as far as Larkin goes, we think he was actually advised to chase girls by his CIA recruiter in second year to cover up what he was…."

"Anyway, there was an incident on the first night there when Chuck was staying with Anna and Jill because they were frightened about the stories of girls getting raped in their dorms and a group of football players _did_ break into their room to rape them. Chuck put them all in hospital and the Campus Police tried to arrest him and charge him with all sorts of things including attempted murder so he got a settlement for nearly one and a half million out of them and used that to buy a house for them off campus, but the terms of the settlement were secret so Chuck had to officially stay in the allocated housing. That interfered with his work too much so he had to give in to Larkin blackmailing him to cover up the fact that he was supposedly off sleeping with his 'good Christian girlfriend' all the time..."

"Then just before they finished at Stanford the CIA recruiter tested them for compatibility with the earlier version of what Larkin just sent to Chuck, and Chuck got an almost perfect score. That was why Larkin and the recruiter framed Chuck for cheating, because they sent Chuck's results off with Larkin's name on them. That's when we found out that the money for Jill to go to Stanford had come from an organisation called Fulcrum, who had been told that Larkin was the candidate, because she was made to dump her 'boyfriend' Chuck and seduce Larkin to get him to come across to them. When we were discussing how to deal with Jill's problem, Uncle Roan and Anna came out with what Chuck had done for Anna and Lou and they talked him into doing the same for Jill so that she'd be prepared for what she was going to have to do with Larkin…."

She stopped and looked at Sarah. "So Chuck has had sex with three women, as friends only, to help them, and they've _all_ been lesbians, those were the _only_ times he's had sex with anyone!"

"Anyway, while they were staging some fights to convince Larkin that Jill had broken up with Chuck, Chuck got expelled for cheating and once he'd collected all the evidence to clear himself he came home… But Auntie Di had taken note of what they said about the girls experimenting with Chuck and got suspicious, well you know how suspicious your Aunt is! So she got some friends in Israel to check up on Lou and found that she had twin baby girls about six months after the family moved to Israel, her father had been planning on emigrating for a while and it was all organised, but they reason they left the way they did was that they found out that Lou was pregnant…. So what I'm trying to say is that when they get home you're going to see that Chuck has twin daughters, but he is _NOT_ with their mother that way and never was! Lou and Anna are a couple and they're both close friends to Chuck, but that's all they've ever been, _YOU_ have always been the only girl for Chuck and Anna and Lou always knew that, even if they weren't lesbians, which they are!"

Sarah was staring at her, trying to make sense of all this, but when she heard the lift Ellie realised that there was one more piece of information that she had to tell her, no two, no three! Shit! "Okay, there are a few more things you need to know before they get here. One, Uncle Bry got married and had a daughter, Kimberley, Kim, after you were taken away, but his wife was a total bitch who divorced him while he was off on assignment, then got remarried straight away to a sleaze when Kim was twelve. Two, Aunty Em and Uncle Bry finally admitted that they loved each other and got married three years ago to give Kim a good home, so Uncle Bry is your stepfather and Kim is your stepsister. And Three, Mom was raped by the one she was sent to extract in Russia so Chuck and I have a half sister, Vivien, who you're about to meet."

That broke Sarah out of her stunned state as she shrieked. _"What?"_

Everyone else turned around when she shrieked and Emma glanced at the lift. "How much did you tell her Ellie?"

"All of it, except for what we do."

Emma shook her head at her but took Sarah's hands. "Breathe Honey! The most important parts to remember of what you were told are that Chuck loves you, he always has and you're the only one for him. His daughters are lovely girls and I'm sure you'll love them as much as they love you. They've been waiting to meet you, so has your stepsister and Chuck's sister because there isn't a day that Chuck and the rest of us don't talk about you. And Uncle Bry and I love each other and he makes me very happy, okay?"

Sarah nodded numbly and Emma put her arms around her.

Just then the lift doors opened and Lou came out with Lottie, Charlie, Viv and Kim, stopping as they took in the scene in front of them.

Lou realised who the beautiful woman in Auntie Em's arms was straight away and she turned to Chuck to excitedly exclaim " _You've found her?_ " before she charged over to hug Emma and Sarah.

While she was reeling from the bombshells she'd just been hit with, Sarah Walker didn't miss anything, and that immediate reaction of joyous excitement from the mother of Chuck's children that she was back was the very thing she needed to accept the truth of everything Nora and Mama had just told her. That immediate reaction couldn't be faked, and to have this woman who she'd never met before be that excited proved what Mama had said, she was always being talked about.

* * *

She was introduced to Chuck's daughters and sister, her new stepsister, Lou, Skip and Jeff, and over the next five or six hours, they talked, only taking breaks for drinks, Sarah to bring the rental Porsche inside and the like. There were tears aplenty, some laughter too, but after the girls were sent upstairs and they got into the grittier subjects, the opportunities for laughter were few and far between. Finding out that Chuck was Mowgli, John Casey was Baloo, Auntie Mary was Frost _and_ Akela, Ellie was Raksha and Uncle Bry was Bagheera was a shock, to say the least, but it made a lot of things she'd been told in training and on missions make sense.

Chuck was nervous when Anna and Lou told Sarah about what he'd agreed do for them and Jill, just as Sarah was nervous when she was telling them about what she did for a similar reason, and the times when she was trapped and couldn't get out of it in training and on those first solo missions.

The more they talked, the more Sarah understood what Ellie was saying, none of them were innocent any more, they'd all been forced to do things they didn't want to, to protect themselves, the ones they loved, and others who couldn't protect themselves.

* * *

The talk of the paramilitary operations raised the question of where their base for that was, and the others made Chuck take Sarah downstairs to show her the armoury and everything else. Sarah walked around the armoury, having trouble believing what was in there, she'd never seen anything like this, the SAD teams she'd worked with didn't have a fraction of what was here. Her eyes also lit up when she saw the high tech urban combat range and dojo, pool and the rest, oh yeah, she could have fun down here.

As they started to go upstairs, Sarah suddenly stopped and turned to Chuck, and finding that they were pretty much face to face when she was standing one step up she leaned forward to say in a low voice in his ear. "We're going to have to talk about upgrading this piece of crap pistol I picked up in San Diego, OK?"

She laughed at the shiver that went through him when she spoke in his ear like that and threw her arms around his neck as it just felt natural. His arms had gone around her waist the same way, and they stood there, looking into each other's eyes. For all how comfortable they felt like this, the laughter was gone and she said quite seriously "I missed you Charlie, they've all been telling me how much you were looking for me, and I just want you to know that I thought about you all the time too. I never want to lose you again, any of you, but especially you and Mama."

Chuck smiled and nodded and Sarah went to give him a quick kiss, much like the ones they'd always shared before they were split up as kids, but it didn't feel quite the same now. That quick kiss became a much longer one, and afterwards as they stood there, holding each other, Sarah mischievously asked "So, do I kiss as well as your other girlfriends, Anna and Jill?" Chuck groaned and tried to pull away but there was no way she was letting go, so he looked at her "You aren't bad, I've had to put on a more enthusiastic show with them and others more than a few times, but I'd rather kiss you."

She swatted him on the shoulder. "I suppose you _are_ a bit better kisser now than you were when you were eight."

As they stood there, he rubbed her back and breathed in her ear "I'm so glad you're back!" She just nodded and tightened her grip.

* * *

They got a call from Casey to say that he was on his way in soon after that, so they asked him to pick up food and drinks for fourteen or so for a celebration along the way. As Casey walked in, he was asking what they were celebrating, but froze when he saw Sarah. It didn't take a genius like her to work out that they'd crossed paths professionally, so to forestall something being said that would be hard to take back, Emma jumped in. "John, I'd like you to meet my daughter, Samantha Blake, but I believe that you may know her as Sarah Walker?"

That made him whip his head around to look at her. " _She's_ your Sammie? You've found her?"

Emma nodded happily, and Sarah found that she was happy about the way he'd put that. As the CIA's top agent, she'd locked horns with 'Beckman's Pit Bull' as Graham and many in the CIA called him more than a few times over the years, so finding him as pretty much part of the family and actually sounding happy that her mother had found her, that was certainly a surprise.

While they were setting things out, they went over the fact that Auntie Di hadn't been able to fill him in on the fact that Sarah was there or who she was after he'd taken off, because they couldn't guarantee secure communications. Sarah filled them in on the background that she had to get there 'by tomorrow' so she could turn up in the morning as no-one would expect her to be able to engage the target at night. John was also theoretically getting there in the morning, so he could report that he observed Sarah engaging the target and ask the General what to do about her.

The fact that they couldn't recover the file that Larkin had sent was a problem. Chuck had backtracked it, but there wasn't a working copy left anywhere, any copies had either been set to delete themselves when the trigger came back up the line, or they'd somehow been opened, which had triggered the same damage as had happened to the virtual computer that Chuck had used to open it. They all knew what this meant, if Chuck had seen the images and was still functioning, he was the only viable way for them to access the Intersect database, so Graham would be trying to grab him to use him as a resource.

John asked whether they could claim that Chuck couldn't access the Intersect information to get Graham off their backs, but Chuck, Sarah, Ellie and Emma shook their heads (pretty much in unison, which amused the others) and Ellie said. "No, they'd just grab him and put him through whatever procedures it took to get to the information."

Then Chuck spoke. "No, we need to find some way to prove that I can be more use to them out in the real world, that's the only way that I'm likely to avoid a bunker, and I'm afraid that if you (looking at the screen) try to put me in a bunker, there's going to be a war."

Diane didn't bother answering that, they all knew which side she'd be on if it came to that. All she said was. "We might want to put the call out to our friends."

The others nodded, but when Sarah went to ask what they were talking about, Chuck looked at Viv and squeezed her hand to stop her.

* * *

Then he said "I can think better when I'm doing something, I'll go get Sammie set up in the guest bedroom in my apartment and we can pick it up when we come back." The others nodded and he took her by the hand to lead her off to the elevator. She got the hint and didn't try to talk about this until he brought it up in his apartment. When he went to put her things in the guest bedroom though she raised an eyebrow "You were serious about that?"

He looked at her "I didn't want to presume anything Sammie, I didn't think we were at that stage yet?"

"I'm not saying that I'm going to have sex with you Charlie, but as both Ellie and Anna have made a point of telling me, you've shared a bed with women hundreds of times without doing anything, we've been apart for nearly eighteen years, I'd like us to be able to spend the night holding each other and maybe talking?"

His smile at that lit up the room and he nodded, taking her bags to his room. Once he'd put the bags down, he sat on the bed and patted the spot beside him. Once she'd sat down and taken his hand he started "OK, about our friends... I presume that Ellie told you how Viv was conceived?"

Sarah nodded.

"When Auntie Em went off to look for you, Graham made threats about what would happen to us if Mom didn't bring her back and Mom countered with some threats of her own. He needed my father to get his project finished but her threats made him decide that Mom was too much of a risk to his plans, so he somehow forced Uncle Hartley to load an earlier version of the program called Agent X that overwrote a person's personality and memories and turned him into Alexei Volkoff…."

"Graham created _Alexei Volkoff_?"

"Yes... anyway... he convinced my parents that the people who had sent Uncle Hartley in weren't going to extract him, and 'let slip' where the supposed extraction device was, so Mom grabbed it and went to Russia to deactivate the Agent X program and get Uncle Hartley back... but that had been a lie, there's no way to extract that program, and he'd had Volkoff tipped off that she was an assassin coming after him. Volkoff raped and tortured Mom but she managed to get him to confirm her identity as a KGB sleeper, Marjan Zaleska, with the First Directorate so he didn't kill her…."

Sarah cut in again. "Auntie Mary was a KGB sleeper?"

"Yeah, she was sent over here when she was sixteen but she unofficially defected when she met Dad. Anyway, when Volkoff found out she was pregnant he stopped her terminating the pregnancy and made her have the baby. Vivien was taken away at birth, Mom thought on Volkoff's orders but the fact that her foster mother was tortured to death without giving her up about nine years later makes us wonder. After Viv was born he made Mom his enforcer and right hand man, using the fact that he knew where Dad, Ellie and me were to keep her under his control, so she was trapped there. Dad went a little crazy and tried something desperate which was frying his brain and everything was falling apart."

"About a year after Mom went to Russia Dad called Auntie Di and then disappeared and Auntie Di and Uncle Bry got Ellie and me out before Graham could grab us, Auntie Em came back to look after us and we were relocated down here to Arcadia, working in a secret intelligence group under Auntie Di. Auntie Di got word to Mom that we were all safe so Mom got the Spetsnaz guys to help her get away and she came back to us on my tenth birthday. Those guys are still helping her and some of them have defected since then because they couldn't put up with what Volkoff was doing any more. There are also some ex-KGB agents and spetsnazovtsi who Mom talked into coming over to us when the Soviet Union fell and they were abandoned, and some American and other agents who we took in and hid when they were burned, that's who Auntie Di was talking about as our friends. The reason we didn't want to talk about this downstairs though is that we want to spare Viv having to listen to what the monster who's taken over her father's body did. She's tough, well she's Mom's daughter, but she's only sixteen and she doesn't need to have her nose rubbed in it."

"Charlie, what happened with Jill, I can see that there's something wrong there!"

"A bit after we graduated…. yes, I graduated... I went back to see the Chancellor with John as an FBI agent, Uncle Roan as our Lawyer and all the evidence to prove that I'd been framed and we convinced them to let me finish quietly and graduate with all my entitlements under a different name, and with a fourteen million dollar settlement to keep quiet. Anyway, after we all got back here, Jill started getting upset and then she just disappeared. About a month later Anna got a letter from her to explain. She hadn't told us the truth because she hadn't managed to get Larkin to use a condom every time. She didn't get AIDS, but she _did_ get pregnant, so she decided to go off and have the baby and start a new life away from everyone she'd let down, as she said. We've been looking for her, even though she asked us not to, so we can try to help her, but we haven't found a trace of her. But Jill's been less of a sensitive subject since Lou came back because Lou was Anna's first love, and it wasn't her choice to disappear while it _was_ Jill's.…."

She came in for another kiss, and they held each other for a while, but finally Chuck reluctantly pointed out that they should go back down so they could try to get a plan together.

* * *

When they came out of the lift, Ellie, Anna and Lou looked at each other in obvious surprise.

Unfortunately for them, Sarah read that look quite easily. "No, we weren't having sex! What sort of girl do you think I am?"

Even Emma burst out laughing when Ellie answered "Obviously one with a lot more self control than me, you two have been pining over each other for eighteen years, we expected you to be going at it like rabbits to get rid of all that unresolved tension!"

Both Chuck and Sarah were blushing madly, and the only one who actually looked sympathetic was John, all the women were laughing so hard they had tears streaming down their faces. Chuck just took Sarah by the hand and led her downstairs. While the women were laughing, John brought the shooting range up on the big screen and grabbed himself a drink, sitting back to watch the show he knew was about to start. For about fifteen years now, this had been Chuck's way of dealing with frustration, and when he was wound up like this, his scores were always impressive. Chuck and Sarah alternated and John's surprise grew for the next half hour, because Sarah's scores were almost as good as Chuck's, and he never thought that he'd see _two_ people capable of beating him this badly on the range, for that matter he had a sneaking suspicion that she could beat him in other arenas too, just like Chuck could.

As they wound up and put the weapons away, John looked up at the screen where the General's image was and they nodded to each other... Yes, they _had_ to find a way to convince Graham to go with the plan, because they needed that pair together! Individually they were incredible, but together they would be unstoppable!

When they came back up, still hand in hand everyone noted, Diane asked. "So... Have you come up with a plan yet Chuck?"

"Not a plan as such, but an idea maybe, I'm going try to relax tonight…." At the hint of a comment, he turned his head towards the others and snapped "Shut up!" before turning back to the screen "Then in the morning I'll probably come down here to set up multiple news feeds and stream them concurrently to get the most hits I can, then we'll go over what came up to try and find one, or more, which are big enough to use to build a good enough case to leave me out here in the world where I can be of more value."

The others were nodding, this would be the best way forward, so they agreed to re-convene in the morning and packed it in for the night.

 **A/N: According to GT. Zondra's nickname 'Il Martello di Dio' means 'The Hammer of God' in Italian and Carina's tag of 'El Diablo Rojo' is 'The Red Devil' in Spanish, they became well known as these names while they were kicking arse in the CATS.**


	7. Prestidigitation

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

As Sarah had said, they talked and held each other through the night, though there was quite a bit of kissing involved, too. While it was tame compared to what the others expected them to be doing, it was a wonderful night for them. The real surprise, for Sarah at least, came early the next morning though.

She was wide awake the moment the twins walked into the bedroom in exercise gear saying "Morning Papa…" but they stopped short when they saw Sarah, Lottie blurted out "Oh I'm so sorry! We forgot….." and they turned to run out but Sarah called out to them. "Wait…. Come back girls!"

They stopped and looked back in confusion, to see her holding her hand out with a smile, so they hesitantly turned around and came back in.

After a round of hugs and kisses, Sarah asked. "So I take it this is the normal morning routine?"

Charlie nodded. "Yes, we're sorry, like Lottie said we just forgot, whenever we're in the same house we come in to get Papa for our run with Auntie Ellie and Viv, come back and have a training session with Nana and then have breakfast while we're waiting for Mama and Auntie Anna and everyone else to get up."

Sarah groaned as she suddenly realised... "Oh no, there are three more of you now?"

The girls looked at their father in confusion and he smiled as he stage whispered. "Auntie Sammie needs lots of sleep like Auntie Em and Mama and Auntie Anna!"

That got him growled at. "Yes I f.. bloody well do! Don't you laugh at me Mister! Just because _you're_ some kind of cyborg who doesn't need sleep doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with those of us who do!"

Her pique faded as she was wrapped in his arms and kissed, and Lottie and Charlie piled on to make it a four way hug, but then Chuck started laughing quietly and the look he got from her said that he better explain or else!

Chuck shook his head. "I was just remembering when I first started seeing the reports about the Ice Queen in Ninety Nine, because the image they generated in my head was of a beautiful and lethal cyborg, I guess two out of three ain't bad."

Sarah started shaking her head at him, but stopped and looked at the girls with concern.

It was Chuck's turn to shake his head. "We don't hide things from the girls Sarah, they aren't children, any more than we were at their age. They know what we do sometimes and they've been working with us for a few years now so they've seen all too many reports and images of that sort of thing. Growing up in Israel until they were eight, they saw more than most American kids too. And don't forget, they _are_ Frost's Granddaughters!"

That got the girls another hug from Sarah, then they went for their run with Ellie and Viv, telling Chuck that he'd have to put in extra effort later to make up for slacking off like this. That made Sarah laugh, yep, these were Frost's Granddaughters alright!

After they'd left, Chuck explained that while he did need to keep up his fitness levels, he liked to run with the Ellie and the girls to ward off unwanted attention. Sarah could understand that, because four beautiful young women like them (Ellie was twenty nine, Viv was sixteen and Lottie and Charlie were fourteen and they were all around five foot eight or nine with great bodies) in running gear would stop traffic. She told him to go after them, because she knew that he could catch up easily enough, but he shook his head, saying that they could look after themselves, and he had to get to work on what they'd need to resolve the current situation.

* * *

That reminded Sarah that she was going to have to call Graham and tell him she was going in to engage the target this morning, and she expected him to warn her that Casey was also moving in and tell her to make sure she got to the target ahead of him. The most logical approach was that she tell Graham after she 'engaged' Chuck that she'd managed to talk him into taking her out so that she could manoeuvre him into telling her where the email from Larkin was, and that would also give them a bit more breathing space to come up with something to make a good enough argument to 'keep him in the world'.

They stayed where there were and cuddled for a little while longer then went to have their showers and went downstairs. It didn't take Chuck long to set up the news feeds, which included numerous military information channels, and he settled down to watch them, scribbling notes when something flashed up at him. John was there and he and Sarah were discussing the best way to handle this.

Chuck suddenly jerked, looking as though he was going into a seizure. They both rushed over, but it seemed to be finished by the time they reached him, he wiped a hand over his face, looking exhausted, but smiled when Sarah anxiously asked "Charlie Honey, are you okay baby?", pulling her in for a kiss and saying "Yeah, I just wasn't expecting that!"

"What happened? You looked like you were having a seizure!"

"Yeah, it's apparently how this thing works when it brings up a lot of information, it kicks my arse! Previously I just got small hits on things and they were easy enough to take, but this, yeah this one really hit me. The good news though is that I think we have the event we need to make this thing work, someone's planning on blowing up the Pacific Security League Conference tonight at a hotel here in LA so we just need to get enough information together to stop it."

She looked him in the eye, still concerned, but he smiled and leaned in to kiss her again, saying "Sweetie, I'm okay, really!" softly. Her look didn't change at first as she ran her fingers through his hair, smoothing it back, but she obviously decided that he was telling her the truth as she nodded, gave him another kiss and then went off to report in to Graham that she'd engaged the target and talked him into a date so she could get him into a setting where she could control what was happening.

* * *

By the time she was off the phone, Chuck had a vast array of search engines running up on the screens, looking for anything and everything to do with the conference and the plot, and he asked for her phone.

Sarah handed it over with a questioning look and he explained as he led the way to the electronics lab. "This entire building is shielded, so I haven't been too worried about it up to now, but your phone is bound to be loaded with CIA bugs and trackers, so we need to work out how to deal with them before you take it out of here. We also need to work out whether the CIA has already activated them so you can get your story straight when you have a longer talk to Graham. So long as they haven't been activated, I can set up everything to show that you flew in late last night and stayed at a hotel somewhere, which fits with what you've told Graham, let's just hope that he was too shaken and focused on covering his arse yesterday to order them to be turned on."

She smiled at that and kissed him. "I knew there was a reason to keep you around, I hadn't considered any of that! From the times I talked to him yesterday, and even just now, I think we may be okay though, he's still running scared that this will blow up in his face because ultimately, he's responsible for Larkin."

Chuck grinned "Let's hope!"

When he pulled her phone apart and tested all the (many) add-ons inside, he quickly confirmed that most of them hadn't been activated as yet, so he checked what the one active one did and held (it was a bug that looked like it was always on, set to record any and all phone conversations, but there wasn't anything in the recording that could really cause a problem for Sarah. The worst were the discussions with Aunt Jane about keeping her in Europe, but they'd always been careful about what they said because they expected to be monitored. Then he jumped onto the computer and inserted all the relevant records to show that she'd been in New York when Graham called her (Sarah was wide eyed as she watched him changing the phone company logs across the country to virtually reroute all the early calls and messages from California to New York) and had gotten onto a flight to Los Angeles a couple of hours later, booking into a hotel when she arrived (for that, he changed the hotel records of a room where the occupant had booked out early to get a room that had been used the night before). He also got into the systems of the rental company to alter the records to show that she'd rented the Porsche at their office over near the hotel (part of the reason to choose that hotel) early that morning, instead of in San Diego the day before.

Sarah shook her head at how thorough he was, but froze as she suddenly realised something. "Shit! You _are_ the Piranha, aren't you?"

He looked at her quizzically. "I wouldn't have expected you to know that much about the hacker world Sarah, but yeah."

She shook her head. "I don't really, but one of the CIA techs, I'm pretty sure the _best_ CIA tech, has helped me quite often and he has a serious case of hero worship for the Piranha, so he talks about him... you... all the time."

Chuck grinned. "It's nice to be appreciated! Who is this tech?"

"Pete Tong, I don't expect..."

"Ah! The Mongol! Yeah, he _is_ about as good as anyone the CIA has."

Sarah shook her head again. "Do you keep track of everyone in the business?"

"No, just the ones who are good enough to be worth keeping an eye on."

With that, they went to see what the search engines had come up with. Chuck identified where the job to blow up the conference was advertised on the Russian Business Network, noting that it was actually targeting NATO General Leland Stanfield, and picked up who'd taken the job, a well known Serbian bomb maker. He got a number more flashes of information as he saw these facts, including the schedule of when General Stanfield would be on stage and some of the plans for the bomb, so they knew where and when to be there and had an idea of who and what to look for and Chuck inserted the details into the system to ensure that they had a specific table assigned to their dinner reservation in the restaurant at the hotel, one where they could see both the service and main entrances for San Francisco room where the conference was.

With their plans laid out, Sarah went off to get settled into 'her' hotel room (telling the ones at reception that she'd lost her key when she went out to get a car and collect her bags from the airport when they called to say that they'd finally found them) and do what she'd be expected to do for the day. Chuck, Jeff, Anna, Lou and Skip had to put in the time to look after their business clients, as many of them were being hit with the 'Irene Demova' Virus because guys were accessing the supposed porn site from their work computers.

* * *

As they entered the hotel to go to the restaurant, they saw Casey at the bar but ignored him. They actually had a good time at dinner, having the expected discussions for the now active bugs in Sarah's phone, though the way Sarah's eyes were flashing at the cracks Casey was making over their earwigs, knowing that they couldn't respond because of the bugs, said that they were going to be having a serious discussion, probably involving blood and bruises, when it was safe to do so.

Chuck didn't see the Serbian bomber entering the Conference, and as the time that the bomb was supposed to be set off drew closer, John said that they couldn't wait any longer. They paid up and left the restaurant, then John approached them and came out with a few atrocious lines that Chuck wouldn't be letting him forget about for a _long_ time, quoting Robocop, really? Anyway, that gave Chuck the opportunity to go into his own lines "Wait, that guy, the one who went in there, he's a bomber, oh my god he's going to blow up the General!" and with that he pulled free of Casey and ran into the San Francisco room.

When they were inside and Casey and Sarah got the security people to back down by flashing their NSA and CIA credentials while Chuck searched for the bomber, trying to ignore Casey's comments over the earwig about how bad his lines were. " _You_ can talk? 'dead or alive, you're coming with me'? Never mind, shut up, we've got to find this guy!"

Just at that moment he spotted the bomber and Casey indicated him to the security people, but as they were closing in on him he reached for something in his jacket and they blew him away. Chuck had to ignore that as he looked for the bomb, and spotted the covered food cart that the bomber had left standing there.

When they got to the food cart and opened the top, Chuck knew what the bomber had been reaching for, as the timer was running and was under thirty seconds, looking inside the covers underneath didn't improve anything, as there were enough explosives there to possibly bring down the building, but the bomb wasn't made to the plans that Chick had seen in the Intersect and none of them recognised anything in the wiring that would let them disarm it. Just then Chuck realised that the laptop that was being used for the arming mechanism was a cheap one that they'd been seeing a lot of that day, because the basic design made them particularly susceptible to the Demova virus.

He jumped onto the keyboard, enabling the WiFi, connecting to the hotel's network and bringing up a browser to search for the malware site. Time was running out as he entered the site, and the virus fried the laptop and killed the detonator mechanism with less than a second to spare. He went to snap at Casey when he made a crack about puking on the C4, but held it as he could see that Casey was just as shaken as he was, they all were, because Sarah had come into his arms as the laptop died and was still clinging onto him. They all knew how close they'd been to being blown to smithereens, far better than anyone else in there did.

* * *

When he saw General Stanfield coming, Chuck grabbed his phone and activated the bug jammers, as they couldn't afford to let the CIA hear what was about to be said. "Charles, John, what's going on here?" Sarah felt Chuck draw himself up and went to step away but stopped when he grabbed her hand, obviously there was a reason he didn't want her to step away, but she stopped thinking about that when Chuck started speaking.

"Hello General…. Well I was actually on a date with my girlfriend at the restaurant here in the hotel when I recognised a Serbian bomber entering the room and I was pretty sure that he wasn't an official delegate, so I called John. I knew _he_ wouldn't be far away because he thinks I can't even go on a date without getting into trouble."

Casey cut in with. "Do you blame me? Did you miss the massive bomb we're standing next to?"

At that the General barked " _What_ massive bomb?" and Casey pulled aside the cloth covering the body of the cart to show that it was packed with explosives "Shit! Why didn't you tell me? Johnson!"

When the head of security ran up, the General told him to get that cart out of here! When the man went to grab it angrily he stopped him with "Carefully you fool! There's enough explosives in there to level the building!" After that he very gingerly took the handle and slowly pushed the cart from the room. With that, the General turned back to Chuck and he continued.

"We got into the room and I identified the bomber, but the security people shot him and then we found out that he'd armed the bomb, so we had to disarm it, and that's where we are."

"You've prevented a catastrophe here today Charles, and I'll make sure that the proper authorities know about it!"

"I'm sorry General, but I'm afraid that we can't let you do that. You see while we _are_ here on a date, I'm actually in the middle of an operation, and I couldn't risk my real identity getting out so I'm here as my cover identity, a civilian by the name of Chuck Bartowski... And we also need to cover up the fact that Sarah is my girlfriend, because she's a CIA agent who's in LA on an operation herself... and our relationship _isn't_ officially sanctioned."

"You do live a complicated life, don't you Charles? Alright, I won't do anything publicly, but I _will_ be having some private talks with the General about this, you'll be getting recognition for what you did, deal with it!"

Chuck nodded with a smile, saying. "Thank you sir"

The General looked at Sarah "And while I understand your situation, your part in this will be in the official record too, hopefully you can be officially recognised for it one day Miss?..."

"Walker Sir, Sarah Walker, and thank you."

The General nodded and went to leave, but stopped and turned back to Sarah with a smile. "I should have known that he had someone incredible hidden away, the way he's shot down every woman who's ever come after him. I hope you realise just how special this man of your's is young lady!"

Sarah smiled at him. 'Oh, I do Sir! Thank you."

With that, he left with a smile and Chuck turned the bug jammers off as they headed out of the conference room. When they'd left the Hotel, Sarah and Casey put on a good show of arguing over who was going to get custody of Chuck and how he was to be handled, and within half an hour Sarah had been contacted by Graham to tell her that she and Casey would be staying in LA to guard Chuck and act as his handlers.

* * *

To keep up appearances, Chuck headed off to the beach and Sarah 'tracked him down' there, having the type of conversation that the CIA would expect to hear before she took him home and headed off to her hotel room to try and get a bit of rest before she went into the FBI office in the morning with Casey for the first briefing on this assignment.

As soon as Sarah had left, Chuck got to work, as he had to have everything set up before the briefing in the morning. The others helped for a while before they went off to bed, but he did the bulk of it himself. The only details of their cover lives that he'd touched on so far was that he'd offered Sarah a job at PS&T and quietly told her that officially, Ellie would be sharing his apartment with him and Casey would be taking over Ellie's apartment. He had until the briefing in the morning to create everything else. But he also had an even bigger job, creating a bullet proof business case to convince everyone that the Human Intersect team had to be operated under very strict parameters if they wanted him, as the Human Intersect, to continue working effectively.

By the time that Diane came on-line at about 3AM his time, he had much of it done, the records showed that the smaller building and yard beside El Castillo had recently been sold to Thebes Security and they'd had the development application to alter part of the building approved by the local planning department. All the electronic records were in place to show that Thebes Security was a legitimate company, making up of a franchise of an established nationwide security services company based in Austin Texas (Kane Security Services) that had taken over the small but well regarded security company in LA. The owner of the LA company, Phoebe Noble (better known as the operative Cleopatra Jones up until she was burned in the late eighties, she was actually Rick's mother), would continue running the LA operation as Thebes Security. The story line was that the owners of KSS were proud patriots and had agreed to not only take John Casey on as the second on charge for the LA operation, but also to allow the government to add whatever they wanted to the premises while the building was being rebuilt.

The personnel list that Chuck had put together for Thebes Security made Diane shake her head, because aside from a few of her agents like Captain Noble, Captain Dunwoody, Miss Prince and Miss White, it was mostly made up of the best of their 'friends', who'd been supposedly been brought in from other franchises of KSS or part of Thebes security (which of course looked like an established company even though Chuck had only created it a few hours ago), these were Phoebe Noble, Buckminster Posey, Gertrude Zerbanski, Marco Kostov, Ilsa Trinchina, Yuri Gabrienko, Louis Chekov, Robin Cunnings, Alexandra Forrest, Charlene Baltimore, Michael and Tara Colt, Javier Cruz, Vincent Smith and Robert Simms. Most of them had enough experience in corporate and protective security to pull it off, but more to the point their 'friends' had all been highly respected and capable special operations or intelligence operatives, so the Thebes Security team made for a formidable force, especially with John, Bry and the others added to it.

Part of the work that Chuck had had to do was to ensure that all of their 'friends' records would stand up to thorough investigation by the CIA, and the NSA for that matter. He was still doing that when Diane came on-line and they started discussing it. He filled her in on what he'd told Sarah and cleared with Ellie, that Sarah would bring up the fact that he'd offered her a job with his company and Ellie was listed as sharing his apartment, while Anna and Lou and Jeff and Skip were listed as sharing other apartments. This was both to make it more believable for them to be living in a place like El Castillo, and so that the 'NSA' could lease Ellie's apartment next to his for John to use, as the records now showed that it had recently become vacant after the previous tenant moved east.

Chuck went on with the explanation, because that had been the easy part, the hard part was putting together enough of an in-depth and bullet proof history of Chuck Bartowski, basket case, to convince everyone that the solution they were trying to present was the _only_ workable option. This included counsellor and psychiatrist reports, statements from students and professors back at Stanford, colleagues and customers, Ellie's friends from UCLA and Westside, a veritable mountain of evidence to show that Chuck Bartowski was borderline as it was and he would be a basket case who was good for nothing but a rubber room if he _ever_ had to experience betrayal or abandonment again. They had a few things in their favour here, like the fact that he hadn't had anything to do with any woman other than family members and his lesbian best friends since he finished at Stanford, except for that one date he went on with Agent Sarah Walker. As General Stanfield had told Sarah, he didn't even talk to women most of the time. Then they had the fact that over ninety percent of their business dealings with customers or anyone else were actually handled by Anna, Lou, Jeff or Skip, mainly Anna or Lou, because Chuck was usually working behind the scenes so that he could get away for his other work if required.

Put together with the reports and statements that he'd created and salted throughout systems around the country, ranging from psychiatrists' practices and Stanford to comments on social media sites about Ellie's brother and the FBI, they showed a clear image of a brilliant but exceedingly fragile young man who'd been utterly destroyed when he was betrayed by his best friend and his long term girlfriend at university. His business was apparently only functioning because his best friends were running it for him, and he was incapable of having social interactions. This all made the fact that he'd actually had a date with agent Walker all the more amazing.

The NSA's favoured psychiatrist, Dr Leo Dreyfus, had formally reviewed all the reports about Mr Bartowski and stated that in his professional opinion, _any_ further indication of betrayal or abandonment was likely to finish what the betrayal that he'd experienced at Stanford had started, rendering him an irretrieveable basket case. He further opined that Mr Bartowski had probably only opened up to Agent Walker because she was almost the total opposite of the flirty, unfaithful woman who'd come so close to destroying him. (Auntie Di had supplied him with a recording of what the CIA would have heard at dinner and luckily that portrayed Sarah as a friendly but reserved young woman who was being honest about her past, so he based his report on that.)

By the time the briefing started, Auntie Di had gone through all of this with the DNI, citing concerns that the Director of the CIA's usual heavy handed approach of using sexual attraction, if not outright sex, to control the subject would break the Human Intersect, and manoeuvred the DNI into stating the formal position that America _needed_ the Intersect database, so if the only copy of this database was in the head of a rather fragile young man, _nothing_ could be allowed to threaten the emotional stability of that young man.

Afterwards, Diane called Chuck and laughed. "Have you ever considered going into politics Chuck? You've got both the DNI and the President just about ready to order anyone who _might_ do anything to disturb your delicate equilibrium banished, and they're on the verge of begging Sarah to marry you, just to ensure that you stay happy and stable. I've expressed my concerns that the CIA may not be willing to handle this in the manner that we believe necessary to keep you working properly and they're working to have that executive order you suggested to have Sarah exclusively transferred to my control, along with the rest of it, actioned."

Chuck grinned at that "I would be willing to make the sacrifice of marrying Agent Walker for the good of the country General."

"I just bet you would! We're not out of the woods yet Honey, but with all the groundwork you've done here I believe that we can get Sarah locked into this and protected from that bastard Graham's plans for her. I hope you're as proud of yourself as I am of you!"

"I'll celebrate when we _know_ she's safe Auntie Di. We can't underestimate Graham."

"I know that Honey, but we've got a really good case _and_ the support we need now, thanks to you!"

* * *

With that, he sent everything that she'd need for the briefing in the morning through to her and told her that he'd make sure that all the rest of the records would hold up before he went to bed. He put another few hours in before he crawled into bed, and Anna let him sleep in until 8 because she knew he wouldn't have stopped until it was all done. She had looked up what he'd put together though, so after she'd given him his coffee, she hit him "Are you kidding me? Did you specifically go out looking for tall, leggy bitches? Alexis is the shortest of the lot of them, and don't even get me started on Auntie Phoebes! Way to look out for Lou and my self esteem issues Chuck!"

He shrugged "Hey, you can blame Mom and Auntie Di, I had to go with our _friends_ who were available and had the skill sets we needed to fit into the company we were creating and Auntie Phoebes wanted to come over because her little Ricky is here. If it makes you feel any better, think of how John's going to be when he sees Uncle Buck, Louie, Mike and Yuri."

That got a grin from her. "Oh yeah, he won't like that, damn they're big!"

"I'd say Yuri's more tall than big but yeah, Uncle Buck, Mike and Louie certainly have the big title down."

"Uh-hu, anyway, time to get up, you need to get some work done before your girl comes back and distracts you again."

He swatted her on the behind for that and she leant in to give him a kiss with a laugh, then turned serious. "I'm so glad you found her Chuck! I have to admit, I was worried that you'd be searching for her for the rest of your life and die lonely and miserable, and you don't deserve that, you're the best man there is. I was never been more glad to be wrong in my life!"

He hugged her, quietly saying after a bit. "Yeah, I've wondered about that quite a bit myself over the last eighteen years, I can tell you."

She wrapped her arms around him and said "Well you don't have to wonder about that any more, you've got her back, now we just have to sort out the government and stop them from interfering with us, no problem!" With that, she kissed him again and headed out the door.

* * *

Sarah met Casey outside the FBI's LA office, her earwig already in place so the others could talk to her while she was in there. For the benefit of the CIA's bugs, Casey asked "Did you tuck Bartowski in all snug last night Walker?"

"I made sure that the asset was delivered safely into his apartment building, if that's what you're asking Casey!"

"No need to get snooty Walker, after you!"

She proceeded him into the building, sharing a quick smile when they knew that they were out of range of the cameras.

Once they were in the secure teleconference room, the link to DC was initiated and they went over the events of the night before. Diane did a fairly good job of covering up her look of triumph when Graham buckled and formally (if reluctantly) agreed that it would be in everyone's best interests for the Human Intersect to remain 'in the world', with the Walker and Casey as his handlers, though he made a point of eagerly stressing that Walker's cover was to be as Bartowski's girlfriend.

When they started discussing the arrangements of the assignment, Sarah brought up the fact that Chuck had offered to employ her in his company the night before and that was quickly locked in as no-one could argue with that being a good thing. Graham was rather suspicious when Diane said that they'd already managed to secure the newly vacant apartment next to Mister Bartowski's for Casey, and also that they'd placed him as the second in charge of the security company being established next door to the building where Mister Bartowski's business and apartment were, and furthermore that that the owners of that security company had given the government carte-blanche to change or add what they wanted while they were rebuilding the property, so they were currently working on plans to add an operations centre underneath the building for the team.

When she baited the hook with in a dig about there being room for Sarah in the apartment that they'd acquired for Major Casey if required, Graham bit, just as she'd planned. "That won't be necessary General, we'll be setting up Agent Walker at Maison Twenty Three in the interim, but her mandate is to ramp up her relationship with the asset fast enough to move in with him within a month, two at the absolute most, because this operation needs to be brought under control as soon as possible!"

Diane could see Sarah getting upset about such a blatant order to screw Chuck into submission as fast as possible, but then saw her calm down when John said something to her. She looked at Graham. "Have you actually reviewed Mister Bartowski's file Director?"

"I've skimmed it, what of it?"

She reached forward and picked up a very thick folder from the front of the desk, dropping it onto the desk in front of him. Graham's eyes went wide, as the CIA's file on Bartowski wasn't anywhere near this size.

"The reports our people have uncovered show that Mister Bartowski was subjected to a number of extremely traumatic experiences while he was at Stanford, the first of these required him to fight off a group from the university's football team who broke into his girlfriend's dorm room to gang rape her and their friend, and resulted in the campus police trying to have him arrested and charged with attempted murder among other things, but by far the worst of them involved _your_ Agent Larkin and Mister Bartowski's long term partner, Jill Roberts!"

"Your Agent Larkin framed Mister Bartowski for cheating and actually managed to get him expelled just before they graduated, though Mister Bartowski's family managed to have that overturned with the FBI's assistance at least, it was reportedly the damages settlement from that incident which gave him the money to start his business when he was finally back on his feet. But to top that off, your Agent Larkin _then_ taped himself having sex with Miss Roberts" (Anna had convinced Chuck that Jill would support him using that to save himself, so the unaltered sex tape was included as part of the evidence) "and proceeded to make sure that everyone in Palo Alto, and many others right across the country from what we discovered, knew about that _and_ Mister Bartowski's being expelled for cheating. With his relationship and prospects completely destroyed, Mister Bartowski had a total breakdown and required considerable psychiatric help before he was able to recover enough to deal with people again."

"Even now, he remains a semi-recluse. His friends Anna Wang and Louisa Palone effectively run his company for him and help keep him on an even keel. He has not had anything to do with any woman other than those in his immediate family and Miss Wang and Miss Palone, who are a lesbian couple by the way, since he was betrayed and abandoned by Miss Roberts that way."

"Our agency psychiatrists have reviewed the reports of the psychiatrists he has been seeing over the past six years, and have registered the opinion that _any_ further incidents would most likely effect Mister Bartowski's ability to function as the Human Intersect."

"We were all amazed that Agent Walker managed to get far enough past his defences for him to not only agree to have a date with her, but by all accounts enjoy it up until the point where he saw that bomber. The fact is, no other woman has managed anything close to that with him in six years, but Agent Walker jumping into bed with him straight away would almost certainly remind him of Miss Roberts and that would destroy the trust he has apparently placed in her, and that in turn is quite likely to effect his ability to function as the Human Intersect. We simply cannot allow the well being of the Human Intersect and this operation to be endangered in that way Director."

"The _only_ way any relationship with Mister Bartowski would be allowed to progress would be if Agent Walker were to engage in something akin to a real courtship with him, to allow trust and affection to develop between them at a more natural pace. And while we're on the subject of relationships, in view of Mister Bartowski's previous reactions to betrayals, if Agent Walker _were_ to take that path, we could not allow any possibility of situations, on mission or off, where Agent Walker was engaged in any activities that Mister Bartowski might regard as a betrayal of the trust he has placed in her. Would you be willing to commit to that Agent Walker?"

"What do you mean Ma'am? I don't really understand what you're asking?"

"No missions involving any form of seduction, unless it's minor and we, or more to the point _you_ , have agreed it with Mister Bartowski previously, or any dating or engaging in activities of a compromising nature in any locations where you could possibly be seen or recorded so that he might find out about it."

"That is rather restrictive, and I must say intrusive into my private life Ma'am! In fact you're telling me that I cannot _have_ a private life!"

Diane gave a regretful sigh. "Yes, I am aware of that and I am truly sorry Agent Walker, but our reviews of Mister Bartowski's history have led our experts to the conclusion that _any_ further betrayals would be likely to push him into a state where we would most likely lose access to the Intersect information permanently, I am willing to supply copies of these records and reports to you if you wish. The problem is, when Agent Larkin stole the copy of the Intersect that he sent to Mister Bartowski, he destroyed the Intersect Facility and every other known copy of the Intersect code and data with it, so the _only_ known copy of the Intersect is now residing inside Mister Bartowski's head. Quite frankly, we have no idea how Mister Bartowski has survived at all because there is no record of any previous Intersect test subject surviving, but the fact remains that he _has_ survived, and more importantly appears to be able to access and effectively use the Intersect information in his head, which makes him a unique and incredibly valuable resource for our country. So I will ask again, knowing this, are you willing to commit to fully complying with the conditions we've laid out to participate in this project?"

Sarah pretended to consider this for a while. "Well, given that information, yes Ma'am, I am prepared to commit to complying with your conditions in full."

Graham growled. "You can choose what you do in your personal life Walker, but on missions you will do whatever you're ordered to! And furthermore _General_ , you do _not_ have the authority to dictate to the CIA what missions we give our agents!"

"Perhaps not Director, but I _have_ been authorised to enforce the operating conditions for the Human Intersect Project, given Mister Bartowski's history and mental state, and the fact that _your_ agent destroyed every other copy of the Intersect code and data. Without a formal commitment to comply with all the conditions stated, Agent Walker and hence the CIA will not be allowed to be part of the Human Intersect Project."

Graham sneered. "You don't have the authority to make that decision General!"

The screen suddenly split and the DNI appeared on one side. "But I _do_ Director! I have been monitoring this meeting because of the gravity of the situation we are in and the concerns I had about territorial issues endangering the viability of the Human Intersect. I am disappointed to see that those concerns were valid, I was _also_ disappointed to see that while General Beckman reported to me about these issues of national importance, _you_ apparently did not believe that it merited the effort Director. So it's me as the Director of National Intelligence asking you now Director, will the CIA formally commit to complying with these requirements in full, or not?"

Graham gritted his teeth. "Yes sir, but we will have to replace Agent Walker with another agent, as we cannot afford to lose our best agent to a project of this nature."

"That is not an option Director, as General Beckman has already stated, our experts have been astounded by the unprecedented level of trust that Mister Bartowski has extended to Agent Walker. From their reports, he would almost certainly regard it as yet another betrayal if Agent Walker were to suddenly disappear and someone else were pushed on him to take her place, especially given the fact that we have no idea what it is about Agent Walker that has made him trust her the way he has. Therefore, the requirements are that Agent Walker, and _only_ Agent Walker, will be permanently, irrevocably and exclusively assigned to the Human Intersect Project. She will _only_ operate within the Human Intersect team and will _not_ perform any other missions outside of the Human Intersect team, either solo or with any other agents. She will _not_ complete any functions relating to seduction unless both she and the Human Intersect have agreed beforehand. She will also not be involved in any missions where she is required to act in a compromising manner with other agents. General Beckman will have final authority on any and all orders issued to Agent Walker. If the CIA agree to these conditions, the paperwork will be prepared for your, my and General Beckman's signatures and we can continue."

"That is too restrictive sir, the CIA cannot afford to lose the services of its best agent like that. Under those terms, the CIA will opt out of any involvement in this current Human Intersect Project. We will continue to search for our own suitable candidate and proceed with them once we locate one."

"Your position raises questions Director, given the fact that as General Beckman has said, according to the information available to us all other known copies of the Intersect code and data were destroyed by Agent Larkin, but that is a discussion for another forum. I must formally ask, is that your final word in regard to Agent Walker's participation in the Human Intersect Project Director?"

"Yes sir, it is!"

"Very well Director, remain there in General Beckman's office, as there is other paperwork that must be processed."

* * *

Graham was certain that he'd just been manoeuvred into something, and when he saw Walker relax after Casey said something to her, he knew that the NSA was up to something so he barked. "Walker, we're leaving! I expect you to be on the next plane to Langley!"

As he said that, the door to the office opened and the DNI walked in to hear the end of Graham's order. "Director Graham, are you disobeying the direct order I gave you?"

"No sir, I was just giving my agent her orders."

The DNI looked at the screen. "Agent Walker, stay right there!"

Sarah nodded without saying a word.

Then he turned back to Graham. "It is my belief, Director, that you were in the process of wilfully disobeying an order that I had given you, but I will deal with _that_ another time."

He put some documents on the desk in front of Graham. "I require you to sign these to accept receipt, and then action them exactly as ordered."

When Graham scanned the document, his face hardened. Looking up he said. "I decline sir, I will not give up my best agent!"

The DNI turned grim. "What gives you the impression that you have any choice in the matter Director? That ship sailed when you formally confirmed that that was your final word in regard to Agent Walker. Now, sign to accept receipt of your orders or I will have the General sign the statement on the next page to say that she witnessed you refusing to do so! In case you've forgotten, refusing to accept a direct order from your Commander in Chief can be construed as treason."

He suddenly stopped and faced the screen. "Agent Walker, I've just realised that we… _I_ owe you an apology, as we have all been treating you as something to be traded and ordered about instead of an extraordinary young person who has already done and sacrificed so much for your country. This document (waving at what was on the desk in front of Graham) is a signed Presidential Order, and if it is executed, from this point you will be part of the CIA in name only, you will be subject to no orders from the Director or anyone else in the CIA, only General Beckman, as the Director of the Human Intersect Project, and she in turn will be subject only to orders from myself as the DNI, and the President himself. You will also be attached to the CIA's National Resources Division for the duration of this assignment so that you're authorised to operate within the United States, because at the moment you are operating illegally on U S soil. A similar order will be presented to the Director of the NSA for Major Casey, and a slightly different one for General Beckman herself to also release them to the Human Intersect Project. Under the terms of this order, you will operate purely as part of the Human Intersect team under the conditions that have been discussed here today and you _cannot_ be forced to perform any mission, by yourself or with other agents, outside of the team. Your assignment to the Human Intersect Project will also be permanent unless you request to return to the CIA, another option available to you is that you may resign at any time you wish. I apologise for not treating you with the respect that you have earned, and deserve, prior to this. My only excuse is that we have been faced with a catastrophe here and have been racing to try and beat the clock before it all blew up in our faces, but I am now formally asking whether you choose to transfer to the Human Intersect Project under these terms, or would you rather to stay in the CIA in your current capacity?"

Sarah's eyes were shining but she kept her expression neutral as she drew herself up. "I choose to transfer to the Human Intersect Project sir, and I thank you for offering me this choice."

The DNI nodded with a smile, saying. "It is no more than what you have earned Agent Walker!"

He then transferred his attention to Casey. "Major Casey, we have also shown you the disrespect of proceeding down this path without asking whether it is what you wish, so I ask you the same question, do you wish to transfer into the Human Intersect Project under the terms discussed, or do you choose to stay attached to the NSA in your current capacity? Your orders are slightly different in that the other project that you are currently assigned to is also coming under the same umbrella."

Casey also drew himself up. "I choose to transfer to the Human Intersect Project, thank you Sir."

The DNI nodded and then turned back to Graham. "Are you prepared to sign the document Director, or must I have General Beckman sign to witness your refusal as I have said?"

Graham grabbed a pen and angrily signed the three copies of the document before throwing it down, whereupon the DNI calmly picked up the pen and signed the documents as well, passing them to Diane in turn for her signature. He then picked up one copy of the document and extended it to Graham, saying. "This is your copy Director, and now there is no need for you to remain, seeing as this is a meeting for the Human Intersect Project. You will be formally advised, along with the other agencies, of the parameters and conditions for engaging the Human Intersect team once they have been documented."

The document wasn't quite snatched from him as Graham gritted out "Sir. General." before he stalked out of the office, not quite slamming the door.

 **A/N: Uncle Buck is Clint Walker, look up the movie Cleopatra Jones to see Auntie Phoebes and the Long Kiss Goodnight for Auntie Charly, Marco is Dolph and Mike Colt is 'Mr Colt'**


	8. Human Intersect Team

**Some of the details are changed to fit into a slight change of direction, they're mostly aircraft related.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

The DNI relaxed with a small smile and said "I must admit that I enjoyed that a little, the Director likes to throw his weight around too much for my liking." He turned to look at the screen "Agents, I think that it's only fair to fill you in on what we have planned for the Human Intersect team."

He glanced at Diane and she nodded for him to continue. "As well as yourselves and Mister Bartowski, we are also planning to add representatives of the DEA and the FBI, though we have not identified any suitable Agents in those agencies as yet."

He stopped when Sarah suddenly brightened at that. "Do you have any suggestions on that front Agent Walker?"

Sarah hesitated and glanced at Casey. "I know and trust two exceptional agents in the FBI and the FBI sir, but Major Casey may not be comfortable working with one of them…."

Casey gave her a suspicious look as the DNI asked. "Who are these agents Agent Walker?"

"Carina Miller of the CIA and Zondra Rizzo of the FBI sir, I worked with them for two years as part of a very successful multi agency team, the CAT Squad."

They heard Casey mutter something like 'Oh hell no!' while Diane snorted. The DNI raised an eyebrow at her and she quietly said "Prague, sir."

The DNI tried, with little success, to stifle a snicker as he then remembered the infamous picture of the Major, handcuffed naked to a bed, that had been doing the rounds of the intelligence communities for a while.

He schooled his expression and asked. "Do you have any objections to working with either if these agents Major?"

Casey gritted out. "No sir."

The DNI nodded and looked at Diane. "General, do you believe that these agents would be suitable for the Human Intersect Project?"

Diane nodded. "Yes sir, as Agent Walker said the CAT Squad was very successful and achieved quite a lot in the two years that they were together. They were unfortunately sabotaged by the fourth member of their team, another CIA agent who was in fact a traitor. After she was killed in a trap that she was attempting to set for her team members, the team was arbitrarily disbanded, even though many members of the international intelligence community argued for it to be allowed to continue on the basis of its significant achievements. And more to the point sir, we need to be able to have complete trust in anyone that we bring into the team for something as critical as the Human Intersect Project. Agent Walker has a history with these two agents and I am prepared to trust her judgement in regard to them."

The DNI nodded. "I would suggest that you approach these agents with Agent Walker to determine whether they would be interested in joining the Human Intersect team on the same terms as Agent Walker and Major Casey then General."

With that, he nodded to Diane and the screen, saying. "I will leave you to make the necessary arrangements."

After a round of 'Thank you sir's, he picked up his copy of the Presidential Order and departed.

* * *

Diane looked at the screen "John, _can_ you work with Carina? I happen to agree with Sarah, they are both exceptional agents, and we aren't likely to find anyone else of their calibre who we could to trust the same way."

"Yes Ma'am, as long as we can keep Miller away from any handcuffs."

Sarah piped up at that point. "Her story was that you said some very unkind things that hurt her feelings, and that was why she left you like that Casey. And there's always the fact that you had to already be in that bed, naked, to be handcuffed that way."

"Alright! It wasn't all her fault, but she didn't have to send that damned picture to everyone!"

"In Carina's defence, my understanding is that she _didn't_ Casey, she sent only it to a few friends, like me, but somehow it went, what do they call it, viral?"

Diane tried to get the discussion back on track. "John, I'd like a serious answer, are you able to put that behind you and work with Carina Miller?"

"Yes Ma'am."

She nodded. "Sarah, do you think that you can set it up for us to sit down and talk to them?"

Sarah nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

Diane went on. "OK, even though we have a controlled group now…."

She stopped when Sarah suddenly held her hand out with a panicked look, and dug out and held up her bugged CIA phone.

Diane's lips thinned angrily but she nodded, wondering how the hell that had slipped her mind? Once she had control of herself she went on.

"I'm sorry Agents, I've just been reminded that I'm due in another meeting, as we went over the time allocated for this meeting due to those other issues. We will have to pick this up again in our next meeting, I'll leave you to proceed with the arrangements that we've discussed, goodbye."

She cut the link and sat down, only just resisting the urge to pick something up and throw it across the room.

* * *

In the FBI office, Casey held his hand out for the phone and Sarah handed it over as they headed out of the room. In the lift foyer he started talking "Stop bitching Walker, you know how damned slow these lifts are, it'll be quicker to take the stairs" as he pushed the door to the stairwell open. As he got to the top of the stairs he cried out "Look out Walker, your phone!" and then tapped it on the hand rail before carefully dropping it down the centre of the void in the stairwell. When it hit the floor at the bottom, it shattered quite spectacularly and they grinned at each other, even though it took them a while to find and pick up even the major pieces. They weren't too worried if they missed some pieces, once they'd confirmed that they had the SIM and SD card, and that any batteries had been separated from the rest.

Back at El Castillo, Sarah held up the FBI evidence bag that held remains of her phone and said "My phone had a ackident!" with a grin and Anna burst out laughing. "That looks like John's work!"

That made Sarah look at him and ask "Do this often, do you Casey?" but he just shrugged "It's the quickest way to deal with something like that!"

Chuck came out of his office as he said that and laughed, taking Sarah's hand to lead her to the elevator. Casey went with them as he wanted answers about what had been set up, and he knew that Chuck had been behind it.

After getting Sarah's choice of the phone she wanted, Chuck confirmed that the SIM was a legitimate one (IE: Not interfered with by the CIA) and put it into the new phone, along with a fresh micro-SD card, then he started transferring her contacts and other data from the phone and SD card over. As he did this, he told them about what he'd been doing to build the case to show what a fragile little flower he was, and how another betrayal would almost certainly render the human intersect permanently inoperable.

When Sarah asked when he'd had the time to do all this he just shrugged, saying that he'd been working on it when she was asleep the first night and between jobs yesterday and last night. That reminded her to ask another question. "Why was a four star General calling you two by your first names Chuck? That implies quite a bit of familiarity!"

"Well for a start, we _have_ worked with General Stanfield quite a bit over the last ten years or so, but in the field he normally calls us Mowgli and Baloo. We had quite a few covert urban engagements back in the post Nine Eleven operations however and found that that was attracting too much attention, so he asked us what our names were. Having people hear our surnames would have been a no no, so in urban situations like that the General calls us Charles and John. Everyone in the room knew he was a General so it wasn't giving anything away to address him by his title."

Sarah just shook her head at the matter of fact way he said that. She had noted how he'd tap danced around Casey's questions about this new security company, describing the people as 'off the books agents' that Auntie Di had, which made it fairly obvious who most of them were.

When Casey argued that they could save time and money by using the Dungeon instead of building a new bunker for this team, Chuck pointed out that they were bound to be forced to work with other agents at times, so they'd need to have an official 'Human Intersect' base that outsiders could see and access. Reaching over to bring up the building plans on another screen, he added that Casey's role in Thebes Security was being set up to handle any walk in business and so there would be a small reception area dedicated to his office, and the official access to the Human Intersect base below would be via his office.

Chuck also pointed out that, for the time being at least, they'd have to go with the accommodation arrangements that had been described in the meeting, adding with a hopeful look "With one possible exception?" Sarah smiled eagerly and nodded at that, leaning across to kiss him. The way he smiled and nodded when Casey said that they had a lead on the DEA and FBI agents that he wanted for the group told them that he'd set it up that way, though Sarah would be asking him later how he'd known about Carina and Zondra.

While they talked, he went through the CIA add-ons in the remains of Sarah's phone, finding that luckily the activated bugs hadn't been transmitting real-time or recording timestamps, so he was able to doctor the flash storage to remove the recordings from just after Graham left, until just before Casey and Sarah went into the stairwell, making it look like physical damage had taken out the storage locations for anything between. He also deleted all of Sarah's private contacts and any records of private communications, adding more physical damage to explain some of that too. When the phone had been securely scrubbed of anything that they didn't want the CIA to see, Sarah boxed the remains up and dropped them off at the unofficial (and illegal) station that the CIA were maintaining in Los Feliz with a note to say that it had fallen out of her bag as they were going down the stairs in the FBI building, as that would be supported by the final recording and the story they gave when they asked for an evidence bag to put the remains into.

* * *

When they sat down to talk through things properly though, they had to concede that the argument that Auntie Di had used against Graham meant that separate accommodation _would_ have to be arranged for Sarah, but she suddenly smiled. "Actually, the General made an offer about that in the meeting and I think I'll take her up on it, I will be sharing with Casey!"

Chuck grinned at that but Casey looked pissed. "Oh calm down Casey! I won't _actually_ be staying with you, not most of the time anyway, that will just be my official residence! Who'd be crazy enough to try and get into an apartment that _you're_ in living to check whether I'm staying there or not? For that matter, I'd be rather surprised if anyone could even get into the building, as I'm willing to bet that the security in this building is better than most secure government facilities?" That was enough to get smiles from both John and Chuck, thinking about the fun they'd have if anyone tried.

Now that she had a clean and secure phone, Sarah called Carina and Zondra and asked whether they were in the States now? Zondra was, but Carina wasn't getting back for a few more days, so she made arrangements for the three of them to meet for dinner in DC the night Carina got back. She sent a note to the General to get her to clear her calendar for that night.

After that, they went upstairs to get her set up as an employee of Piranha Security & Technology while Casey went off to meet Phoebe Noble and Charlene Baltimore. The family laughed when they thought about how that would go, because while John was actually quite an enlightened man, Auntie Phoebes was six foot two and didn't take prisoners, and Auntie Charly was helping Auntie Phoebes get the new business set up because she was the boss of KSS and she'd flown in with their other heavy hitters when Auntie Di put out the call, Auntie Charly was six foot and even tougher than Auntie Phoebes. Yep, this would be a test for John, but Ellie pointed out that Auntie Di had been his boss for nearly eighteen years so he should be used to being put in his place by women.

They called Auntie Di and told her what the living arrangements would be so she could make them a matter of official record. Chuck had already sent the plans for the Thebes Security premises through, and Auntie Di told them when the government contractors would be coming, so that Auntie Phoebes and John could ensure that they were there to meet them and agree the business and 'other' requirements. Chuck called that through to John straight away, while Sarah went to collect her things from the hotel and check out, dropping the CIA phone off in Los Feliz on the way.

The next couple of days were largely spent with Sarah and John getting settled into El Castillo and their cover jobs, Sarah working with Chuck, Anna, Lou and the others and John working with Phoebes and her security team. John recognised some of them when he was meeting the team, but that gave them an opening to explain that most of them were ex spec-ops and intelligence operatives who'd joined them after they were burned by the organisations they worked for without going into detail.

* * *

This was the first time Sarah had been to the house in Arcadia, and she could tell that something was going on when her Mama insisted that Chuck show her the bunker. That was the first time she'd ever seen Chuck anything like angry with Mama, so she knew that there had to be something in there that he didn't want her to see. Going through the closet in one of the guest rooms in the basement to get to the bunker was interesting, as was seeing that they had a full operations centre for a good sized team in there, and another armoury that most of the special operations guys she'd come to know would give their right arms to have.

She knew her Charlie though, so when he started excitedly showing her what they had there, she headed straight for the area that he _wasn't_ showing her, the 'wall'.

Knowing that she'd ignore everything else once she started looking at Charlie's, she made herself look at the others' first. It was interesting to read the orders sending Auntie Mary to America in the late Sixties as Mary Conrad, and she wasn't too surprised to see that she'd topped most of her courses at university, she was also amused to see the certificates for all the records she'd taken off Auntie Mary at the Farm. Auntie Mary's Distinguished Intelligence Cross and other CIA medals reminded her of her own and she made a note to get them and her other paperwork from Aunt Jane while she was in DC. She was impressed by the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and other military medals, but she'd heard enough to know that Auntie Mary did a lot of special operations missions, and being Frost she'd be hell on wheels. Seeing that Auntie Mary was a Colonel in the Army, Marines and Air Force and Captain in the Navy was a surprise, as were her Air Force Command Pilot and Army Master Aviator badges and all her aircraft certifications, especially the foreign aircraft certifications, though the Naval Aviator badge next to them was less of a surprise after she saw them, as were the Army & Air Force Master Parachutist and Master Freefall Parachutist badges with combat jump devices and Navy & Marine Parachutist badge, and the combat, combat diving and marksmanship badges.

Uncle Bry didn't have the degrees Auntie Mary had, and his ranks across the services were a level below her's, except for being a full Colonel in the Army. She did note that he'd received the Intelligence Star, along with the Distinguished Service cross twice and Navy Cross once, Silver Star four times and a lot more medals and was an Air Force Command Pilot and Army Master Aviator, though he didn't have anything like the aircraft certifications Auntie Mary did. As expected, he had the same Army & Air Force Master Parachutist and Master Freefall Parachutist badges with combat jump devices and Navy & Marine Parachutist badge, combat action, combat diving and marksmanship badges as Auntie Mary.

Casey's record looked much like Uncle Bry's, as far as degrees, ranks and badges went, but he was a Colonel in the Marines instead of the Army. He obviously didn't have any CIA medals but he _did_ have more military medals than Uncle Bry from the cross level down. He was also an Air Force Senior Pilot, Army Senior Aviator and Naval Aviator and his aircraft certifications were far more impressive than Auntie Mary's, Uncle Bry's or her's, he had a lot more foreign aircraft certifications as well. The certificates he had for speed over distance record runs were interesting, but she didn't delve too deeply into them because she knew that she'd give in to the temptation of looking at Chuck's, as he was listed on them too.

Mama, Jeff, Lou and Skip had some impressive degrees and military ranks across the services, but they didn't have anywhere near as much in medals, and their combat medals were limited to the Air Force Combat Action Medals they all had, though they also had Navy Combat Action Ribbons and Army Combat Action Badges (so even as the non-combatants of the group, they'd all been under fire at times, and returned fire too). Their campaign and service medals and ribbons also showed that they'd been in a lot of the same places she'd been and she knew what it was like there, so they hadn't had it easy. They were also all listed as Air Force Pilots, Army Aviators and Naval Aviators with a number of business jet and other fixed and rotary wing transport and utility aircraft certifications though, much the same as she had though there were a few foreign aircraft in there too... and the F-5E for some reason.

Anna's records were more impressive, because she had better degrees and higher ranks (except for Mama), and she had a Silver Star and Bronze Star among her medals, as well as being an Air Force Senior Pilot, Army Senior Aviator and Naval Aviator who some impressive aircraft certifications, both American and foreign. She also had special operations training certificates that were impressive.

It was when she went to Ellie's section that things got really interesting, because her degrees were far more impressive than anyone else's and her military ranks were mostly at the same level as Auntie Mary's, but there was something else there that Charlie was _definitely_ going to explain! _Especially_ because she could see more that required explanation over in his section! She stopped herself charging over to demand answers, because she was a professional and gathered all the intel before she acted.

Ellie's medals were mostly non-combat, though she did have three Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars, so she'd obviously seen quite a bit of serious action too, but she was an Air Force Command Pilot, Army Master Aviator, and Naval Aviator, and her aircraft certifications, were far more impressive than anyone else's, except that Casey had more foreign aircraft certifications. The certificates from the Air Force and Navy Test Pilot Schools raised questions, but not as much as the pictures and certificate to say that she'd flown an SR-71 up to Mach 3.36 in February 1999 (she glanced over at Charlie's section then, because she _knew_ that she'd find another SR-71 certificate there, but she made herself finish going through Ellie's first). And the certificate and trident badge to say that she'd qualified as a Navy SEAL _certainly_ raised questions. Ellie didn't have the combat jump devices Auntie Mary, Uncle Bry and Casey did on her Parachutist badges or the combat badges, but she had most of the rest, this was one hell of a family she was marrying into…..

* * *

Sarah stopped in shock at that… where the fuck had _THAT_ come from? She'd only been back a few days and she and Charlie hadn't discussed anything like that! When she thought about it, she decided that it was Ellie's fault, from the way she'd been talking when she was trying to make sure nothing got in the way of her and Charlie's life together…. Yeah! That was it! It was just Ellie projecting the fact that she wanted them to be sisters, nothing else! She could hear that voice in the back of her head though… _'_ **Lying bitch** _! Ellie didn't say anything that you haven't been holding in your heart ever since your useless father dragged you away from Charlie!_ **'My Charlie'** _, does_ **that** _sound familiar? It damned well should! because you were thinking it when you turned around and made a beeline for the spot you_ **knew** _he was trying to steer you away from because that man's every trait is etched into your very being! Or how about the fact that you were trying to work out a way around the argument why you couldn't jump into his bed from the moment it was pointed out because there was no way you were going to sleep anywhere but in_ **his** _arms? Suurrreeee, you and Charlie together is_ **Ellie's** _idea, not what you've been thinking about every day for the last eighteen years!'_ … Fuck, she wasn't about to come out and admit it, not even to herself! but she knew that that nagging bitch in the back of her head was right, there was no way she was going let anything separate her from Charlie _ever_ again!

She shook her head as she headed over to the place that Chuck had really been trying to keep her away from, _his_ section of the wall of fame. It was no surprise that it was more impressive than everyone else's and that he had all of Ellie's flying qualifications and more, like the Air Force and Navy Air Warfare as well as Test Pilot school certificates, but seeing the medal _and_ rank flags up there sure was…. Oh yes, he _definitely_ had some explaining to do! As expected, she found the certificate to say that he'd pushed that SR-71 even harder than Ellie had, getting it up to Mach 3.45…. and she didn't know why she was surprised to see another certificate to say that it was _him_ who took that MiG-25PD up to Mach 3.25 in 2002. She froze again and kicked herself, of course! The MiG-25 flight in October 2002 must have been _his_ Twenty First present, from Auntie Di obviously, no-one else could have organised that, while the SR-71 flight in Ninety Nine was _Ellie's_ Twenty First present.…. Damn! Her Aunt knew how to organise epic Twenty First presents! He also had some other certificates for sustained high speed records, one was with the MiG-25 and another from just the day before which was in an F-15, but it seemed that he'd had to get to the Middle East in a hurry fairly often post Nine Eleven as that one before the MiG and the ones with Casey weren't the only ones? His Navy SEAL certificate was expected, as were most of the medals and badges…. she noted that he'd done more combat jumps than Auntie Mary, more than anyone but Casey actually as they both had gold stars on their Master Parachutist _and_ Master Freefall Parachutist badges, he had even more, and more impressive, aircraft certifications than Ellie, especially the foreign aircraft certifications. Yep, her guy was impressive alright, he'd crammed one hell of a lot into the time that they'd been apart and the fact that he didn't want her to see this said that inside, he was still the same Charlie…...

* * *

When she'd taken it all in, she went across to where Chuck was pretending to be busy and put her arms around him. "Did you _really_ think that you could distract me enough to keep me from seeing what Mama wanted me to see?"

He didn't turn around. "No, but I just wish she'd mind her own business… I love Auntie Em but she _knows_ why I keep them hidden down here so that no-one can see them!"

"You _know_ that I have to ask about that Medal of Honor, and those flag ranks, don't you _Admiral_? And how you and Ellie came to be SEALs as well?... And while you're at it, you can tell me about those Twenty First presents you and Ellie got from Auntie Di!"

He did turn around then as he sighed. "Yeah…. that's part of the reason I didn't want you to see them…. Because I didn't want to go into all that... OK, the Twenty Firsts and SEAL training are the shorter stories so we may as well get them out of the way first..."

"Ellie's Twenty First was a surprise to both of us, we'd qualified on all the Blackbird simulations at Test Pilot School because, well because it was the Blackbird! but we never thought that we'd ever actually have a chance to _fly_ one! When Ellie realised what she'd organised, she begged Auntie Di to get me a flight too, but Auntie Di knew her and had already set it up that way, and it was _amazing_! The MiG for my Twenty First... Well Auntie Di had apparently been looking for something to make mine memorable too when a Libyan Mig Twenty Five pilot flew it to Israel to defect. The Israelis didn't want it, in fact they wanted it out of there, so they offered it to our Air Force, and someone decided that it would make a nice display at the Air Force Museum. Auntie Di used the same pull she used to get us the Blackbird flights to have orders cut for the MiG to be _flown_ home, and as the only U.S. Air Force pilot with any familiarity with those types of Soviet aircraft _and_ a good knowledge of both Cyrillic and Arabic, it was easy to get me assigned to fly it. They flew a crew over to strip it down for an extended flight and convert the in-flight refuelling probe, radios, transponders, oxygen systems etc to be compatible with our Air Force equipment, and then I was given orders to fly to Tel Aviv with all possible speed and thrown into an F Fifteen. When I got there I was told that I'd set a new record, covering over eighty three hundred miles in just over seven hours, and then I was told that I was flying the MiG Twenty Five back to the States, and that I was authorised to fully test its capabilities, so long as I was able to land it at Wright Patterson safely afterwards. There was no way I was going say no to that, so I landed at Wright Patterson a little over four and a half hours later with six in-flight refuellings, two burnt out engines, another speed over distance record and a certificate to say that I'd gotten the MiG up to Mach Three Point Two Five. It was a hell of a lot rougher ride than the Blackbird was but it was still one hell of a rush!"

"As for being SEALs, Ellie and I kept practising what Mom taught us after she left, and Uncle Bry took over our training when he and Auntie Di got us away from the CIA. As you saw, they pulled a lot of strings to get us and Anna into all sorts of special ops and flight training when we looked old enough. With our perfect memories, Ellie and I could get through the aircraft certifications in a fraction of the time anyone else did, so we racked up more than any other students..."

Sarah nodded. "I know, so did I and people kept telling me about two others who'd been doing the same thing a few years before."

Chuck nodded. "Well after we'd aced all the other special ops trainings, Uncle Bry bet some of his SEAL buddies that he had a couple of teenagers who could beat _anyone_ they had in SEAL training. They weren't going to back down from a challenge like _that_ , so they arranged to slip us into a class with all their best prospects. Of course, when they saw that Ellie was a girl they wanted to call it all off, but she taunted them about being afraid of being shown up by a little _girl_ until they told us to put up or shut up. A number of them decided to show Ellie what she was _really_ good for one night, but she didn't have any trouble dealing with the ones who got past me, and we _did_ come out on top of the best they had. Their pride as SEALs wouldn't let them disrespect us after we'd thrashed the best that they put up against us, so we were both officially certified and accepted as SEALs, and have both been welcomed _as_ SEALs every time we've operated with them..."

"As for our ranks... They've been setting that up ever since Nine Eleven, because Ellie, Auntie Em and I were made Captains in the Navy and Mom was made Colonel in the Air Force in December Oh One, when we started really expanding the Special Projects Group…. Auntie Di had some grand plan for us but she wouldn't tell me or Ellie what it was... Anyway, John and I were dropped back into Afghanistan with the Ranger Recon guys in July Oh Four, but we ended up in major trouble so we had to fight our way out of the region. It was just another messy mission because of incomplete intel from what I could see…. We'd been doing two or three missions a month on average since Nine Eleven and all too many of them ended up with us having a fight to get out in one piece. I didn't really think about it again afterwards, until we were all called to D.C. at the beginning of May Oh Five and Ellie and I were told that we were required to attend in our Navy Dress Whites with full medals….."

"We knew that they were up to something when we were taken to the White House and Uncle Roan and Josie were waiting with Auntie Di when we we got there, but the fact that Mom had brought the girls along, and Kim and Alex too, had already given that away, so I wasn't too surprised to see that we were led straight into the Oval Office. They had the new DNI there, along with the Secretary of State, Defense, Army, Navy and Air Force, the SOCOM and STRATCOM Commanders, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of the Navy, Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Army, Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Directors of the NSA and FBI were also there and a few other military heavy hitters... The only notable heavy hitter missing was the Director of the CIA, which we were quite happy about. They'd obviously been waiting until after the Director of National Intelligence had been sworn in for this, anyway it was pretty crowded in there…..."

"The President started with some big spiel about how I'd saved the whole Recon unit with my acts of incredible bravery and exemplary leadership, and awarded me the Medal of Honor. John was awarded his second Navy Cross and promoted to full Colonel in the Marines by the Commandant of the Marine Corps, but that wasn't it, because the President started in on another spiel about how the Special Projects Group had been at the forefront in all aspects of the War Against Terror from the start and that his military and intelligence advisors had been recommending that they be given the authority to act more independently, and therefore effectively."

"Ellie was called up and promoted to Rear Admiral Lower Half Eleanora Zaleska to command the Information Dominance side of this group that was so secret that even their own superiors didn't know who or how many people were in it, that got a laugh but I was really happy for Ellie as she never got the recognition that she deserved, because people focussed on the more spectacular missions we were doing rather than all the important work that she and Auntie Em did…. But then _I_ was called up and promoted Rear Admiral Lower Half Charles Carmichael to command the Operations side of the Special Projects Group, which to me took away from the recognition that Ellie had just been given…. Especially when the Chief of the Navy made a joke about the fact that she'd been the Navy's youngest Admiral in over a century for a few minutes anyway."

"Auntie Di was called up then and promoted to Major General in the Air Force, because she had to be at least one grade above those in her command. She was also presented with both the Navy and Marine Corps and Army and Air Force Presidential Unit Citations for the Special Projects Group, officially for the two separate sides of the group but he said that it was really in recognition of the fact that the four services were almost equally represented in the Special Projects Group. We had all the required photo opportunities, but everyone in the family except for Auntie Di had our call signs on our name tags instead of our names so that our names didn't get out. Having the girls there helped sell the fact that I was supposed to be about twelve years older than I was, because who would believe that I'd have teenage daughters at my age?"

Sarah just looked at him and he smiled. "It was fun watching Lou and Anna's reactions when the President asked me where the girls' mother was and I told him that she was with someone else now. They stopped asking those questions after John and Uncle Bry gave them the same answer, but I'm sure Auntie Em could have handled them.… you see Josie was standing with Auntie Em and Viv because Auntie Di and Uncle Roan _aren't_ a very well kept secret in Washington, so him being there wasn't too much of a surprise, but Uncle Roan bringing a teenage girl with him would have told everyone who's daughter she was."

"Once the dog and pony show was over we headed back. Ellie and I were expecting to get the story of what this was about from Auntie Di when we got home, but we didn't! She just gave us a pile of crap about how the President and his military and intelligence advisors had wanted to reward us for everything we'd done in the War Against Terror. I'm sure that Mom and Auntie Em at least know what she's up to, but they won't tell us either and it's pissing off Ellie and me."

He finally turned around to look at her and she went up on tiptoe to kiss him, then snuggled into his chest. They stood there for a while like that and then she looked up curiously. "Just how old _was_ Admiral Carmichael supposed to have been when he was made Admiral?"

"Thirty seven, so he became the youngest Admiral in over a century because he was three years younger than Admiral Zaleska."

He kissed her again and then she found out why he'd been so angry, because he walked over to a keypad on the wall and punched in a series of codes that turned the smart glass in front of each person's section of the wall opaque in turn, so Mama must have come down to set it up to display everything before they got there. He got that the kiss she gave him before they went back upstairs was an apology for that.

* * *

Sarah couldn't understand _why_ her Mama had made a point of making sure she saw everything in the bunker. Surely she didn't think that she needed to be convinced how incredible Charlie was, or any of them for that matter? She decided to find out, so she told Chuck and John she'd see them at the office later, because she wanted to catch up with Mama.

Once Chuck and John were out of the way, she sat Mama down and asked her straight out what the point of that had been. Emma smiled sadly. "You're a part of this group now Honey, and I know for a fact that your Auntie Di is going to make sure that you're a _big_ part of it…. I know that you and Chuck still feel the same way about each other because I've seen it, and so has your Auntie Di. She's been setting up Chuck and Ellie to head up this Intelligence and Special Operations group she's been working with the military and the President to build ever since Nine Eleven showed everyone what they could do, but when she saw how you and Chuck were, and how incredible _you've_ become, she started changing those plans…."

She looked very hesitant about what she was about to say. "Honey… Have you thought about marrying Chuck? Because I know that your Auntie Di is going to start pushing the two of you in that direction… Wait! Before you explode, there's something you need to know! Auntie Mary was actually the one who pointed this out because _she_ used it to protect herself from being sent on seduction missions when she fell in love with Uncle Stefan, you see the CIA and other agencies have left the old rules about married women on their books because most people have never known about them and they thought that trying to make changes would just draw attention to them. Those rules were written back in the days when the sanctity of marriage was held to be important, and they state that married women can't be forced to do seduction missions or do anything of that nature with their partners either, because it was against the laws of the time. We know that what Chuck set up is protecting you, but as your Auntie Di said, Graham and those other bastards are determined, so the more things we can stack up to stop them the better."

She stopped then because Sarah was shaking her head. "I didn't know about those rules... and they _are_ something to think about, but you better believe that I'll be having words with Auntie Di for trying to interfere with Chuck and me!... But Mama….. I _have_ thought about marrying Chuck, in fact I was just giving myself a good talking to downstairs for blaming Ellie when the thought that I was marrying into one hell of a family popped into my head! I've never thought about it in those specific terms before, but as my nagging conscience pointed out, I've spent the last eighteen years thinking about getting back to Charlie and spending the rest of our lives together!….. I _also_ know that as pissed as I am about the idea of Auntie Di interfering with Chuck and me, he's going to be twice as pissed, because he's already pissed at her, and you, and Auntie Mary for refusing to tell him and Ellie about what this game you're playing is!"

When her Mama looked guilty when she said that, Sarah knew. "Oh no! _Ellie_ is in on this too?"

"She wasn't…. not until you came back and Di started changing her plans. She came clean to Ellie then because she felt guilty that she was reducing her role in the grand plan. You see she was going to step down and have Ellie and Chuck take over as the joint commanders of the group, but what she's planning _now_ is for Chuck to take over from her as Commander, with you and Ellie as the two Deputy Commanders, and you taking over from Chuck to command the Operations side of the group. Ellie wasn't too upset about that because she could see the logic of it, so she's on board now."

"Why won't Auntie Di tell him the truth Mama?"

"Because he'll refuse! You saw how he reacted when I made him take you down there, and I'm sure that it was like pulling teeth to get him to tell you anything about what you saw down there. Everyone _except_ Chuck knows that he's the one we need to take the reins, so we're still trying to coax him along….."

She stopped then because the glare her daughter was directing at her was a truly frightening thing.

"And you want _me_ to help you convince my future husband of this?"

Emma didn't think that it would be prudent, or safe, to point out to her what she'd just said, so she just shook her head.

"Not so much help convince him as help him see the logic of it, help him see what everyone else sees…. Including you I think?"

That got a grudging nod from her daughter. "Yes, I can see the logic of it but I'm _not_ happy about this! He deserves to know what the family is setting him up for!"

Emma could see that the danger was past now, so she pulled Sarah into her arms. "Yes, he does Honey, but that boy of our's is just so stubborn!"

Sarah started then. " _That's_ how Auntie Di pulled this off! Graham walked into that briefing certain that he'd get control of the project because he was the one with all the power, so he was totally blind sided when Auntie Di wiped the floor with him…. but she just took what Chuck put together to the DNI and he and the President signed off on it because she'd been working with them all along."

"It wouldn't have worked if Chuck hadn't worked miracles to put everything together and present a bullet proof case in the time that he did…. But yes, our operation was what gave Auntie Di access to the DNI she needed to pull it off this way."

It was obvious that she and Di weren't forgiven yet, but Emma relaxed because she could see that Sarah was mostly accepting this. After asking her to tell Auntie Di that she wanted to talk to her, Sarah kissed her mother and headed back to El Castillo.

* * *

There was another thing that she and Chuck were upset about, the fact that she had to go to DC for a day or two to talk to Carina and Zondra with Auntie Di, they'd just gotten back together after eighteen years, they didn't want to be separated again!

Diane was avoiding the talk that her niece was demanding, so when Graham gave her a way to put it off a little longer, she grabbed it. While they'd locked down the _Human_ Intersect operation quite nicely, Graham was still the joint Director of the original Intersect Project, so she was formally advised that they wanted to run tests on the Human Intersect. _Officially_ , this was to try and find ways of improving the operation of the Human Intersect Program, but in reality it was just Graham attempting to find a way to identify a viable candidate for _his_ Human Intersect Project (and probably sabotage Chuck if he could). Be that as it may, it gave them an excuse to bring all three of them to DC and it was easy to mandate that his two handlers would be accompanying him _everywhere_. The fact that this would help mask original reason for Sarah being in DC was a bonus, as was the fact that they could bring Marco, Robin and Alex back to LA with them (and _they_ could provide extra additional hidden security while they were in DC in case Graham had managed to identify Diane's on the books agents).


	9. What Are Your Intentions?

**A few changes.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

This meant that they were heading to Bob Hope Airport first thing in the morning on the day Sarah was meeting up with Carina and Zondra. Of course they had to explain to Sarah how they came to have their own hangar at Bob Hope, along with a C-37B, Propfan U-28, C-21A and modified MD 600 and Agusta A109. Once they were in the air Chuck explained.

"Post Nine Eleven, we were being sent all over the world much of the time, and getting military C Twenties and C Thirty Sevens assigned to us whenever we had a mission was attracting far too much attention. To get around that Auntie Di got a slightly fire damaged but sound C Thirty Seven A airframe at the AMARC written off and signed over to us in early Oh Two, and we paid Gulfstream to rebuild it to the latest specs..." That got him a look as Sarah had an idea of what a major rebuild of one of these would cost, so he explained. "Between the settlements I got from Stanford, the salaries of most of the fifty odd senior officers supposedly in the group back then, acquisitions from mission targets and good investments, we had over a hundred million available to us at the time..." That got him another incredulous look and he just shrugged, continuing. "And Uncle Roan managed to talk Gulfstream into rebuilding it as the upcoming G Five SP instead of a normal G Five by implying that that would help them with government sales, so we were flying it as a Gulfstream prototype for a while." Because he'd seen that she'd picked up on the fact that this was actually a C-37 _B,_ not _A_.

"The Twenty Eight came about because Auntie Di was bitching about all the time I was wasting, driving or riding down to see Viv in L A on weekends after we found her and brought her home in August Two Thousand, because it was taking over six hours each way at legal speeds. Her saying that getting to know my little sister who we'd just found was wasting time pissed me off, so I told her that if my time was that bloody valuable she should get me a Pilatus PC Twelve so I could fly down and save five hours each way, because the C Twenty One couldn't use the Palo Alto Airstrip and needed two pilots anyway... I just said that to shut her up... It was only my operational training and background that made me automatically specify the PC Twelve as the best match to the mission requirements... but she did. They picked up an early PC Twelve and took it to Pilatus to get it rebuilt and recertified. Uncle Roan talked Pilatus into adding all the improvements and special operations options they were working on like a glass cockpit, ISR system with the retractable surveillance and reconnaissance module, jump door incorporated into the cargo door and the like into the build by implying that this was for the CIA's SOG and it could lead to further sales, pretty much the same way he talked Gulfstream into building us the next generation Gulfstream G Five SP eighteen months later."

"After we got the Thirty Seven, we kept the Twenty Eight for the same reason it became SOCOM's special operations plane of choice, it's a handy single pilot plane with good speed, range and capacity that can use short dirt strips _and_ it can be used as a reconnaissance and jump plane too, and most of the group are certified on it so they can use it if they need to go somewhere... It's a bit modified now because we upgraded the glass cockpit and added fly by wire systems and side stick controls, along with long range tanks, new carbon fibre wings and panels and a lot of improved titanium components to make it stronger and lighter, converted it to the more powerful and efficient propfan and added a few other improvements..."

John interrupted at that point, calling back from the cockpit. "I hear that boom operator's still looking for payback!"

Sarah just looked at Chuck so he knew he couldn't continue without explaining that. "One of the improvements on my Twenty Eight is a folding refuelling probe to get extra fuel if we need it on a fast cross country run, because sometimes it would take too long to get a jet allocated. The first time we had to use it, we were coming up behind the tanker flat stick and heard over the radio 'What the hell did you bastards put in my coffee?' The ones in the cockpit wanted to know what the hell he was talking about and he shouted back. 'It's not fucking possible for a single prop light plane to be coming up on us at over Four Hundred and Seventy knots, but that's exactly what I'm fucking seeing in front of me!' They started telling him to goofing off but I was pissed off because I just wanted to get this operation done with so I started shouting into the mic 'Unless you want to spend the the rest of your fucking life in a government black site, get that fucking refuelling boom extended _now!_ ' He did, and as soon as we'd taken on enough fuel to finish the flight we disengaged and took off again, but when the Air Force asked Auntie Di how the hell a single prop light plane was doing over four hundred and seventy knots she got pissed off and told them that that was _CLASSIFIED_ , and there would be hell to pay for their idiot boom operator telling everyone about it over an open radio like that, as he'd just breached national security! He was officially reprimanded and grounded, putting paid to any hopes he may have had for any future advancement, and he decided that it was the plane operators' who were responsible for his plight rather than his own big mouth, so as John said he's looking for payback. But I'm not too worried about that..."

"Anyway... we had the Twenty Eight cleaned up and updated by Pilatus last year when they got the propfan modifications type certified. The fast cruise speed is up by over a hundred and fifty knots, the range is up by over twelve hundred nautical miles and as the Air Force reported, it can do over four hundred and seventy knots flat out. It's also quieter, so it's a far better plane to fly now. We managed to get Pilatus to include some of the other improvements they'd made since our Twelve was built for us as well as what they're currently working on for it in the update. They've bought the rights to build and sell copies of what our guys created and are getting our guys to supply the components they created to implement the propfans, which is bringing extra money in. They built a second one for Pilatus to use to get type certification with and we got it back last year when it was certified. As I said, that one's down in Dallas..."

"Wait... _You_ guys are the ones who created the Pilatus P C Twelve Propfan?"

"Not me but our guys, yeah..."

He went on while Sarah was shaking her head in disbelief.

"And the C Twenty One is normally in Dallas too, but Auntie Charly and the others used it to fly up to help Auntie Pheobes get Thebes Security set up. We acquired it from an arms dealer we took down in Ninety Eight and I cleaned up the records then got it repainted and done up inside. We used it as part of our cover up until we got the C Thirty Seven, then it went down to Dallas so that they can make use of it. It'd be handier if it was single pilot rated but it's got the range and speed to get people around the country... The Stingray came from the same guy and we cleaned it and its records up to use it as part of our cover too because it looks the part for a nice executive helicopter, but it's also a nice helicopter to fly and faster than most, even more so now..."

The Stingray reference got him a questioning look so he explained. "We have them all registered as military aircraft in the Air Force's records so that we can take them onto military bases without problems. The Coast Guard adopted the A One Oh Nine E Power and gave it the MH Sixty Eight A Stingray designation in Two Thousand, so that's what we have it registered as, just as the Learjet is registered as a C Twenty One A." Sarah nodded, as that made sense, and he continued.

"The Loach was actually our very first aircraft, but it was mainly a bribe from Auntie Di to try and keep us working, because Ellie and I had started jacking up about the amount of work she was expecting us to do when I went to Stanford and Ellie was complaining that while I was getting to fly on my missions, she hardly ever got to fly anything... Anyway, in late Ninety Seven Auntie Di told us that she'd gotten us a helicopter, because that way it could be based just up the road from the house at the Chantry Flats Fire Station Heliport where we could get to it quickly... Which in Auntie Di speak meant not waste any more time than we absolutely had to..."

"Of course, being Auntie Di, she'd gotten us a variant of the MD Five Hundred because she'd gotten control of the new Stealth Helicopter Project by making that a condition when Hank, our aircraft expert, was requested for it. You see back in the early Seventies Hank had been a bright young man who'd been instrumental in getting those quiet Loaches working for the CIA. Auntie Di knew that between Hank, me and Dad, we had a better chance of making this work than anyone, so she told the Army that she'd only allow Hank to work on it if it was _our_ project... So she'd get the credit when we came up with the solution of course. Anyway, the Army was mainly focussing on the Little Bird so she decided that she could use an MD Five Hundred to both placate Ellie and get a test machine for the project, but with Uncle Roan's help Hank talked her into getting the new eight man MD Six Hundred with two of the biggest auxiliary tanks for us instead of the Five Hundred. He argued that the Six Hundred could be used to carry a team on missions when necessary, but he really chose it because he knew that he could make it into something better for us than the smaller Five Hundred. The Six Hundred came with the cargo hook because the deal she made with the Fire Service to let us keep it up at the Fire Station was that they could use it if they needed an extra Helitack copter in emergencies."

"All that mattered to us though was that Ellie was getting to fly regularly again and it's a nice copter to fly. It had a bad vibration in transition at first but our people managed to fix that problem and they modified it a lot more, using it as the test bed for the stealth project, so it's quicker and more nimble than the Little Birds now. We call it the Loach because Hank was calling it that from the start and it seemed fitting, seeing as we were trying to pick up where the previous Stealth Loaches left off, and it's officially listed in the Air Force's records as a modified OH Six so we can take it onto military bases. It was mostly based up at Chantry Flats until they closed the Fire Station in Oh Five because the road was washed out, then we moved it down to the hangar, though it's spent a fair bit of time on the roof of El Castillo since we got the stealth rotor system fitted last year, because it's quiet enough to get in and out without most people noticing now, and we just pull the marquee over it."

"Auntie Di wasn't happy with me when I got us four F Five F Tiger Twos about nine months later when we were checking out that arms dealer though. I used the same argument she'd used for getting the Thirty Seven on her, that we'd attract less attention if she wasn't having to get flight orders for the Air Force and Navy's supersonic jets cut for us all the time to go back and forth across the country once she got the Tigers properly recorded in the system for us. It _was_ a valid argument, but she wasn't buying it because she knew it was mainly to let Ellie and the rest of us to get supersonic flight time..."

He petered off because Sarah looked like she was going to blow, but he didn't have to wait too long to hear what she had to say. " _ **You have a fucking F Five** **?**_ "

Chuck nodded hesitantly. "Four actually, but yes."

"When were you planning to tell me this, and where the hell are they? I think I would have noticed a couple of F Fives sitting in the hangar!"

"We've had bigger issues to worry about since we found each again, with all that shit with Graham and the rest to deal with, but I _was_ going to take you up to Raccoon City as soon as we have a chance... That's where they are, in our facility up at Plant Forty Two with one of the Lakotas, Bertha, Andre, the EuroMil and the Wagon..."

He didn't get a chance to stop this time. "You've got a Lakota _too_? And what are Bertha, Andre, the EuroMil and the Wagon?"

" _Yes!_ The Lakotas came out of the Stealth Helicopter Project as well... That's the reason we have Raccoon City up there, the Stealth Helicopter Project. The Army rejected our proposal for the Stealth Little Bird when it was presented because they claimed it required too many modifications to the helicopter, even though it works quite well. The EC One Forty Five was selected to be the Army's new Light Utility Helicopter just after that though, and its manufacturer was already working on an updated variant of the One Forty Five which included most of the changes they made to the Six Hundred so it wouldn't need to be modified as much to use their stealth system. We thought that that would get us past the arguments from the panel so we bought a couple One Forty Fives, fitted the uprated turbines etc of the new variant and our guys converted them to use their stealth components. The Army still wouldn't consider their proposal though so the guys gave up, but we had proven that we could produce fully functional and capable stealth helicopters out of two completely different helicopter designs and we kept the helicopters... Four actually, because they made the Stingray and EuroMil into a full stealth helicopters as well but the Army doesn't know about them..."

"Okay... Bertha, Andre, the EuroMil and the Wagon ... I don't know how much you've looked into the big military transports, but I presume you know about the Antonov transports?"

Sarah nodded, wondering where this was going.

"Well Antonov were working on a new transport when the Soviet Union fell apart, the AN Seventy. Like many of their designs, it was quite innovative for the time... it still is for that matter... a composite STOL propfan transport that was three quarters the size and half the empty weight of a C Seventeen but had almost as much cargo volume and nearly two thirds the payload, and its cruising speed was only about forty knots slower than the C Seventeen's with more range, it's one hell of a plane. The problem was that it was being developed jointly with the Russians and a lot of politics were involved. As far as the world knew there were only two AN Seventy prototypes, the first one was destroyed in a crash in Ninety Five and they didn't get the second one flying until Ninety Seven, they crashed that one too in Two Thousand and One but managed to get it patched up and continued to use it for flight testing and development. But the Russians had reneged on their commitment to fund the development so it had just about stopped by then because Antonov didn't have the money to continue. The thing was, the Russians' plan was apparently to use Antonov to get the designs and then cut them out of the deal, because they had two _other_ prototypes which must have been built in secret stashed away. I expect they were trying to make Antonov go bust and then have a Russian aircraft company release the Seventy as their own design after they went belly up... which makes me wonder about all the bad luck Antonov had with their prototypes... but Antonov was too well established to go under like that so they never got the chance..."

"Anyway... John, Ellie and I and the team with us found the two Russian AN Seventy prototypes tucked away in a hangar with another much bigger prototype, a dismantled transport helicopter prototype which turned out to be a variant of the new Mil MI Thirty Eight design and piles of parts on a remote military airfield in Russia when we were on a mission there in Two Thousand and Two. We confirmed that the prototypes were the original AN Seventy concept, the updated version of the AN One Twenty Two concept and the original concept for the MI Thirty Eight. The three of us had enough experience to fly the Antonovs so we... Well I suppose you could say that we liberated them. We loaded everything else into the Antonovs and flew them back here to stash them away in the Raccoon City building, which was actually the Air Force's C Five hangar at Plant Forty Two before we bought it..."

"Let me get this straight... You, Ellie and Casey stole three Russian strategic transport prototypes and a transport helicopter prototype from a military base in Russia, flew them all the way back to the States and hid them in your hangar that I'm only now hearing about now?"

"I hardly think that _stole_ is the right word, after all _they_ were the ones who stole the designs from Antonov, and it turned out we were right when we presumed that they stole the helicopter design too, we were just making sure that they didn't benefit from that theft. Anyway, we've updated all three of the Antonovs to glass cockpits with fly by wire control systems and side sticks in the time we've had them, and improved the propellers and engine controls as well so their cruising speed is up by around ten percent, the range is up about twenty percent and they can be flown quite easily by a crew of two, which makes them quite handy to have around. We called the Seventies Big Bertha and Big Boris because... well... they're big, and we call the One Twenty Two Andre the Giant because its enormous. We got paperwork from the Ukrainian government which let Auntie Di get them officially entered into the Air Force and civil records as official Antonov prototypes that we're operating to generate test data for them, which we are actually, so we don't have any more trouble using military facilities with them than we do with our other planes and helicopters..."

"Just what _do_ you have Chuck? You seem to have forgotten to tell me about most of this!"

"I wanted to surprise you with the Tigers, okay? Fine! We normally have this Thirty Seven, our original Twenty Eight, the Loach and the Stingray at Bob Hope, the Tigers, one Lakota, Bertha, Andre, the EuroMil and the Wagon up at Plant Forty Two, and the other U Twenty Eight and Lakota, Boris and two stealth modified Little Birds down in Austin. That's it!"

She was laughing at him now, her expression was saying 'That's _all_ is it?' but she just nodded and said. "Okay Chuck."

He sat down, took a deep breath to calm down and tried to explain. "Look, you probably won't understand this because your records say that you haven't had a break from missions in years, but most of the last sixteen or so years have been one big slog for Ellie and me, Anna and the others too but Ellie and I have been working eighteen to twenty hours a day for the majority of it and it wears you down. John and I are sent away on missions a fair bit, but Ellie's generally been stuck in LA trying to stay on top of the workload and keep her cover life going, so when John, Anna and I were getting into the organisation of a major arms dealer who was reportedly trying to sell off four F Five F fighters among other things on one of my missions, I bought them to get them off the market... That was enough to cement our cover actually, Everyone bought the story that I was the son of some Russian Mob boss who was striking out on my own with John and Anna there as my bodyguards..."

He caught the dubious look Sarah shot Anna at that, questioning her credibility as a bodyguard. "Oh I can assure you my pint sized pit bull is _quite_ believable as a bodyguard once she's schooled a few of them! She wears a sexy little cosplay schoolgirl outfit and pretends to be my companion up until I release her to teach the ones who can't understand what 'Look but don't touch!' means... They learn soon enough then because Anna wins as often as John does when they go at it and she gives Ellie and I a good workout when we spar. She can match most special ops guys with most weapons too for that matter..."

He just answered the shocked and disbelieving look she gave him with a nod and continued...

"Anyway... Dropping about Eighteen Million like that on the F Fives, the composite prototype for our Mark Five SOC Boat and a shit load of high end guns and ammo cinched it, especially with the deal I screwed out of him. We hung onto everything we got from him and cleaned out everything he had when we took him down about a month later. We added bigger tanks and in flight refuelling probes to the Tigers for cross country trips, and we also managed to pick up some of the uprated J Eighty Fives that GE developed in the Nineties when some in the Navy were debating bringing back the F Fives to upgrade them. The uprated J Eighty Fives generate about five thousand pounds of thrust dry and over seven with the afterburners each, which is enough to push the Tigers up to about Mach two point one or two point two clean. They're not F Fifteens but in many ways they're more fun to fly because they're more agile and they'll do over Mach two with the new engines. You know what it's like to fly a jet fighter at supersonic speeds, so you can see why Ellie, well all of us really, love to fly them... and with four we can have dog fights with them..."

Anna nodded with a grin at that and Sarah thought to herself. 'Well that explains why they're all certified on F Fives anyway.'

"The Seventies and the One Twenty Two were just dropped into our laps and they were too good an opportunity to pass up, Antonov had a working flight test bed again by then for the Seventy and it would have raised too many questions if they suddenly had three, but I really wanted to derail the Russians' plans so we took them. Besides which, all these prototypes were a lot lighter than Antonov's because they're mainly made out of titanium and carbon fibre so they had better performance and range, and the Seventies had the AN Twenty Two's twin tails, a wider fuselage and a few other differences, while the One Twenty Two is a bigger version of the Twenty Two with composite construction, propfan engines, scaled up versions of the Seventy's wings and slightly wider fuselage to give it the same service ceiling and speed as the Seventies and expand its cargo capacity, so they wouldn't have given Antonov usable flight data anyway. I found out from Yuri... he's one of our engineers who was at Antonov up until he was made to transfer to Mil just before the Soviet Union fell, and then defected in Ninety Five because he was trapped in Russia... that the Russians had forced Antonov to change the Seventy design to a normal single tail and get rid of the wide fuselage just before they started building the first prototype, presumably to make it look like a different plane so they'd be able to use the more practical and efficient bigger capacity twin tail design after they forced Antonov to go under, and they also pushed for the updated One Twenty Two design to be developed and then canned it just before they started building the prototype too, so they were _really_ planning to screw Antonov over. Once I'd collected all the information I gave it to Antonov and made a deal with them, that's how we got the official paperwork from the Ukrainian government to operate them. Anyway, the One Twenty Two has similar size, cargo volume and payload to the original AN One Twenty Four, but it's less than half the empty weight and has no trouble using unimproved air strips, while the Seventies are by far the smallest and lightest transports which have a tall enough cargo bay to take the copters. They can routinely operate out of unimproved forward support points meant for smaller planes so they're perfect for Hank and the guys' idea of getting the stealth helicopters into striking distance of their targets and their and the One Twenty Two's performance and range have been significantly improved by our guys... It was actually coming up with the improved props for them and the One Twenty Two that gave the guys the ideas they needed to make the stealth rotor work, and the Twenty Eight's propfan came from that too, because when they were working with the propfan manufacturer on their Seventy and One Twenty Two modifications they were shown a small aircraft version of the propfan that they'd come up with but no-one ever took up, so they got some of them to experiment with...

"Okay, the EuroMil and the Wagon, well the EuroMil prototype was built out of titanium and carbon fibre too. Very well actually, whoever built these prototypes for them was damned good. It turned out that the military hard liners in Russia who were trying to screw Antonov over also weren't happy that Mil was working with Eurocopter to develop their new flagship helicopter for the western market, so they stole the MI Thirty Eight designs, had a prototype built up in titanium and carbon fibre with the original retractable undercarriage and were planning to make it a better, more Russian version to show Mil how it should be done. Once again, the lighter weight and retractable undercarriage changed the flight characteristics so much that the flight data wouldn't match Mil's other MI Thirty Eight test beds, so we hung onto it because it's a great helicopter, the overall size and weight are about the same as a Black Hawk but it'll carry thirty people or over seven long tons of cargo inside or over eight long tons of cargo slung and cruise at a hundred and eighty knots now, more if necessary because with our improved and much stronger titanium transmissions and modified FADECs it can use the full power of both turbines. The guys decided to fill in time improving it and added a Fenestron tail rotor like the Loach's and the Stingray's, and after their proposals for the Stealth Little Bird _and_ Stealth Lakota were both shot down, they turned it and the Stingray into full Stealth helicopters, just to prove they could. And like the others, the stealth rotors improved their performance and range in full transport mode..."

"And the Wagon is what happens when a group of leading aeronautical engineers like we put together at Raccoon City get bored. They picked up a few PC Twelve airframes to experiment on rather than hack up our main runabout when they were working on getting the scaled down propfans to work properly for it. They got it working fine but their calculations were saying that the propfan setup was putting out more pulling power than the plane was using, and they came to the conclusion that they'd reached the speed limitations of its single prop airframe design. I presume that they were drunk at the time, but they decided that they could make better use of that pulling power and started cutting up the damaged PC Twelve airframe that they'd used to get the propfan mounting points right. They added two and a half foot plugs to the fuselage fore and aft of the wings and then they did the same thing the Air Force did to make their C Twenty Three Super Sherpas out of the Short Three Sixties, cut the tail off and replaced it with twin tails and cargo doors like the Antonovs, but more like the AN Thirty Eight as they're about the same length, width and height... The tail was probably Yuri's idea but it improved the plane... They also lowered the floor and reshaped the fuselage to give about five inches more width and headroom in the cabin while they were reworking it to improve the streamlining and rebuilt it in titanium and carbon fibre. They made up bigger wings for it, then bolted in the propfan from the Twenty Eight and flew it. They proved their point, because the Wagon uses the same fuel at the same speed as the PC Twelve with the propfan setup and flies just as nice, if not better, but its take off and landing distances are less, the cabin volume is over two thirds bigger and anything that'll fit into the cabin can be loaded. We have a contract with Pilatus for the rights for that design too and they're working to get it type certified, using the PC Twenty Four designation that they were going to use for the jet concept they're looking into. We're flying it as a Pilatus prototype, and it's listed as a modified U Twenty Eight in the Air Force's systems. It's up at Raccoon City because they have more use for it, hauling parts and the like, but more to the point it's their baby and they don't want to let it out of their sight... It was hard enough getting them to release the second one they built for Pilatus to use to get it certified."

"For the rest of it, our friends down in Austin are busy so that's why they have the other U Twenty Eight and Lakota, the C Twenty One, Boris and the Stealth Little Birds. Once we had the stealth system working properly on the Loach we converted their Little Birds to prove the concept. The turbine in the Five Thirty F is almost as powerful as the Six Hundred's and it bolts straight in, so we used that to give them the power they needed."

Sarah just shook her head at him with a smile. "I _do_ understand Chuck, it was just a surprise, you know? Not many people have their own F Five, let alone two and the rest of it. You've got to take me up in your Twenty Eight when we get back to LA so I can try it though, because while I've flown _in_ Twenty Eights, I haven't flown them myself, and from what you've told me about your's I'll definitely be adding it to my aircraft certifications, along with this one. As you know I'm certified on the F Five... Which I _will_ be flying soon! and the Learjet and Little Birds, but I also want to get certified to fly your other helicopters, and the Seventies, the One Twenty Two and the Wagon as well."

He just smiled and nodded. "Yes Dear."

Now that they'd cleared the air, Chuck hooked his laptop up to the big screen in the cabin and showed Sarah what he'd been talking about, _including_ the outfit Anna wore when she was playing his sexy little Chinese plaything come bodyguard. That made Sarah blink, because she hadn't even seen Carina dressed that provocatively in those scenarios, it made the skimpy skirt and blouse she wore to distract Chuck Bartwoski look like an old maid's outfit. Seeing what their air fleet looked like, inside and out though, she was almost salivating at the thought of getting behind the controls of some of these. The F-Fives and the Thirty Seven of course, but she really wanted to fly the EuroMil, and their Propfan U Twenty Eight variants and their Loach, Lakota and Stingray designs too. For that matter she wanted to fly the Antonovs, particularly Andre the Giant, because the idea of flying something that big just boggled the mind... Hell, the idea of an aeroplane having that big a cargo hold was enough to do that, she'd travelled in a Galaxy's hold and thought that it was enormous, but Andre's cargo hold was notably bigger. Anna was watching her, amused, because they'd all had similar reactions when they first saw the planes and copters, but Sarah's reactions seemed more extreme because they were all being crammed into an hour or so.

Even though the C-37 was in civilian livery, the Air Force had it listed as a legitimate military C-37B so they had no trouble flying into Andrews AFB and saved time by driving straight to Fort Meade from there.

* * *

Graham's people weren't happy to see Chuck walk in with his handlers and the General's doctors, scientists and guards, especially when the General's people refused to let them take Chuck away for the testing. That ramped up to pissed off when they said that they had Director Graham's authorisation as if that overruled any objections, and they were told that Director Graham had no authority to authorise _anything_ with regard to this member of General Beckman's team.

Things just kept getting worse for them after that, because the General's doctors forbid any physical examination or testing of Chuck (which they had been planning to use to cover up implanting devices to monitor and track him, and provide a kill switch as well), citing that that was irrelevant to the Intersect, and all they would allow them to do was monitor his brain activity while they were showing Chuck images intended to trigger Intersect flashes.

They were getting more and more frustrated because this wasn't telling them anything new, and when they realised that Chuck had suddenly started getting flashes telling him that some of them were agents rather than scientists, one of the agents suddenly announced that it was time to start the next tests, waving at the equipment on a trolley in the corner.

Chuck was punch drunk from continuous flashes he was getting hit with in the testing, and he was having trouble getting Sarah and John to understand what he was saying about the agents because whenever he tried to speak they flashed another image at him, but that and the tells from the agents planted in his team were enough to tip them off and they moved in. Sarah was demanding to know exactly what these 'next tests' were before anyone touched their charge so the agent started waffling about it being nothing more than applying mild electrical stimuli to various parts of the subject's brain and observing the results while the others were trying to apply the electrodes to Chuck.

John's alarm bells were going off, so he grabbed the electrodes that they were trying to fix to Chuck's head and slapped them onto the head of the one who was doing all the talking, barking. _"Hit it!"_ (No-one else had noticed that Sarah had seen what he was doing and positioned herself near the machine.)

A few seconds later the 'scientist' was twitching uncontrollably on the floor and John was ripping the straps off Chuck as he bellowed. "This testing is _OVER!_ "

Seeing what this 'test' equipment they'd been trying to use on Chuck was doing to the man on the floor, Sarah stopped anyone getting to the machine to turn the current off, so the 'scientist' was fried by the time John had released Chuck and carried him out of the room, because no-one was willing to risk touching the wires while they were live after seeing what it was doing to him, and she only turned it off as she turned to follow Casey out of the room.

Before they left, John barked to the NSA guards with them to take _all_ of them into custody and get the full details of who they were and what their orders were out of them, and also to get NSA techs in to examine all of this equipment to find out _exactly_ what it was intended to do.

* * *

They didn't have too many options for a safe house in DC, and even less for a trusted doctor, so Diane ordered Casey to take Chuck to Doctor Dreyfus. Sarah could see that Chuck was trying to argue against that but couldn't understand why, until Chuck's father worked out that she and Casey were agents, and he started ranting hysterically that agents couldn't be trusted until Doctor Dreyfus had to sedate him to shut him up.

Doctor Dreyfus gave Chuck a clean bill of health, and once she was _sure_ that he was OK and Doctor Dreyfus had given him a mild sedative to make him rest, Sarah left him in Casey's care and slipped out to go to Aunt Jane's house to retrieve her CIA medals and the other pictures and papers she'd been keeping safe for her (Jane had been a good operative, so very few people would be able to find the safe that she had Sarah's things hidden in, and even fewer could break into it if they found it, but Sarah had everything she needed to get in and out quickly without being seen or detected). It was better this way, because her visiting Aunt Jane later that night to collect her things as they'd planned would have shown that they still had a connection and put Aunt Jane in Graham's cross hairs.

If he looked at the situation logically, Graham would accept that he needed Jane Bentley, because she had been the most effective Deputy Director of Operations in living memory for the CIA and she was no less effective as the Director of the National Clandestine Service, as the role had been known by since late Oh Five. After losing Sarah and any control of the Human Intersect, and what happened at the Intersect Facility today though…. none of them were willing to put money on the fact that Graham _would_ be rational _or_ logical. Having his plans fail so spectacularly at both the Human Intersect meeting and the Intersect facility would have him scrabbling to ensure that nothing could come back on him, and desperate to strike out at _someone_ …. but while General Diane Beckman seemed untouchable at the moment, the Director of the National Clandestine Service might not be so safe.

Chuck had recovered enough to convince Sarah, with Doctor Dreyfus's help, that he would be fine to come to the meeting with Carina and Zondra, so they got ready at the Doctor's. He tersely turned down Doctor Dreyfus' offer to bring his father out of the sedative so that he could talk to him before he left, in fact he asked the Doctor to ensure that he stayed under until after they'd left as he'd had enough shit already that day, he didn't need his father making it any worse!

* * *

At the restaurant, Carina and Zondra took one look at Sarah's skirt suit and expression as she arrived and knew that this wasn't an 'I missed you, let's party!' visit, so she was greeted with. "What are you up to Blondie?"

"What, no 'Sarah, where have you been, we've missed you!' ?"

"Yeah, all of that, now tell us why you're dressed like that and why you arrived with Casey and that other guy!"

Sarah laughed, but there was little humour in it. "I love you too Zondra! I've missed this, well like a hole in the head, but I _have_ missed the two of you!"

Carina leant in to kiss her on the cheek, whispering in her ear. "What about tall, dark and gruesome and the leggy bitches over there and those other agents? Are they with you or after you?" (Auntie Di had everyone she had in DC, on the books and off, in the restaurant in case Graham tried anything.)

Sarah's lips meeting hers was rather a surprise, as that had always been something that made Sarah uncomfortable before, but Sarah shrugged, murmuring. "Sorry Red, someone's lesbian best friends were part of the package deal I took with the new gig and some things are changing, but in answer to your question, they're with us, they're part of our... backup singers."

"OK, who are you and what have you done with Sarah Walker? I think I might keep you though, you're way more fun."

Sarah smiled mysteriously but sat forward and looked a little more serious. "So, are you two still generally stuck screwing drug lords and chasing nickel and dime gang bangers?"

They looked at her until Carina growled disgustedly. "You know we are! What's your point?"

"Would you like to change that?"

 _That_ got their attention. "What are you saying?"

"Just what I said Zee, do you want to get away from what you're doing now, or not?"

Carina and Zondra looked at each other and Zondra said. "Of course we do! What games are you playing Blondie?"

"No games, if you want out of your current lives, my new boss wants to talk to you."

They just looked at her as she stood up. "Well, come on! Do you want to talk to her or not?"

They scrambled to their feet and followed her to the private room that Casey and Chuck had gone into.

The two women noted the way the three at the table in the back and the other agents they'd identified around the room followed their every movement as they crossed the restaurant, without losing track of what else was going on in the restaurant… which said that the people in this new group of Sarah's were good. When they reached the room, Sarah knocked once and went straight in, closing the door behind them. There were three people in the room, only one of whom they knew, John Casey.

* * *

The younger man who'd come in with Sarah and Casey was sitting at the table, and Carina in particular noted the look that passed between him and Sarah as she entered, smirking to herself at the thought that she could have some fun here. She caught the look on Sarah's face when she headed for him though and abruptly changed direction to head for a seat across the table from him, because while winding up an angry Sarah was all part of the game, actually _hurting_ her was something else altogether! Sarah actually looked vulnerable and defensive when she sat down next to the guy, and that was another first!

As Casey and Sarah's mystery man were 'he's, the last person in the room had to be this mysterious 'boss'. On the face of it, the little red headed woman in her fifties didn't _look_ that impressive, but she had to be powerful if she'd managed to get both the best of the CIA _and_ the best of the NSA on her team.

The woman had obviously caught what was going through Carina's mind at least, because she launched straight into it. "Agent Miller, Agent Rizzo, nice of you to join us. Please, have a seat."

Once everyone was seated, the woman went straight into it. "Thank you for coming ladies, I am Major General Diane Beckman, and as you will have by now worked out, Agent Walker, Major Casey and Mister Bartowski work for me. We are creating a new multi agency group, and we would like to invite you to join us."

Carina and Zondra exchanged a look. "What can you tell us about this group General?"

"Not a great deal until after you've joined I'm afraid, because just about everything to do with it is classified way above your current security clearances. We currently have high level CIA and NSA agents" (waving at Sarah and Casey) "working with a top level information specialist," (waving at Chuck) "and we've been cleared to add high level DEA and FBI agents as well. As I said, we'd like the two of you to be those agents."

She exchanged a look with Sarah and continued. "One thing I _can_ promise you is that you will never be ordered, or requested, to sleep with anyone for a mission, or risk getting yourself killed going after some drugged up gang bangers who will be forgotten and replaced before the body's been taken away. We'll be dealing with serious targets and I plan for us to make a difference."

The two women shared a look again and Carina spoke up. "That sounds like a wonderful opportunity General, and I certainly hope that Agent Rizzo is able to take you up on your offer, but unfortunately I don't see any chance of the DEA releasing me, because I've proven to be too useful to them."

The General looked at her sympathetically. "Do you _want_ to join us Agent Miller?"

"Sorry Ma'am, didn't I make that clear? _Yes!_ I would love to join your group General."

The woman nodded at that, and looking down, picked up one of the documents and held it out it to her. "I don't really think that anyone will be able to stop you then, do you?"

Zondra was leaning forward to try and see what Carina had read that had shocked her so badly, but the General offered her the other document. When she'd looked at the document in her hands, she looked up with the same expression as Carina. "Is this real?"

Sarah answered her with a smile, the first time she'd looked cheerful since she got there. "Yes Zee, you should have seen Graham's face when the DNI forced him to accept mine."

Zondra turned to her, stunned, doing a double take when she saw that she was openly holding that guy's hand. She shook that off and said. "Just to be clear here Blondie, we're talking about the Director of National Intelligence of the United States, right?"

Sarah nodded. "Yep!"

Zondra shared a look with Carina then looked back at the General. "Well in that case General, it looks like you have your DEA and FBI agents…. so when do we get to find out about Lover Boy here?"

Diane looked confused until she saw their joined hands and frowned, but she saw a chance to move her grand plan along here, so she said. "You behaviour begs a question Mister Bartowski, what are your intentions towards Agent Walker?"

Chuck looked at Sarah and said softly… "Very long term if she'll have me!" (They should have known better than to ask Anna to keep the fact that they were getting her to confirm that the CIA's rules for married agents hadn't changed quiet from him.)

Sarah was pissed at Auntie Di for pulling this shit, but elated that Chuck apparently knew what she was doing and was saying just what _she_ wanted to hear! "Oh, she'll have you alright! For ever and ever…. Amen!"

Carina and Zondra were staring at the now kissing couple across the table from them, utterly stunned, and Zondra blurted out. "What the fuck's going on here Blondie?"

When she'd released Chuck's lips, Sarah turned to her and said. "Most of it will have to wait for your clearance Zee, but the unclassified part is…." She pointed at Chuck "This is Charlie!" then Diane "And my Auntie Di."

Both women's heads whipped around at that. "Charlie? _Your_ Charlie, the one you've been moping about since you were a kid?"

Sarah nodded happily and they shook their heads in wonder, but then they processed the second part of what she'd just revealed. "You talked about your Auntie Di Blondie, but you _never_ mentioned that you were Old Ironpants'… Sorry General…. Niece!"

Diane shook her head with a smile to dismiss the apology, because to tell the truth she liked having that reputation. "Sammie didn't find that out until she started this assignment, as all she'd ever known me as as a little girl was her Auntie Di."

Carina glanced towards the door. "What about the backup singers then, can you tell us about _them_ General?"

"Backup singers?"

Sarah said. "Marco and the others."

"Ah…. Yes. Some of them will be going to Los Angeles with you to be part of the security company that is Major Casey's cover job, and may be your's as well. They will also make up the support team for the core team that you'll be part of. These personnel are mostly off the books as far as any agency is concerned."

The General looked at her existing team and at their nods turned back to the two women. "This will be a permanent assignment unless you choose to go back to your agencies, and you may also resign at any time you like. You will not be under the authority of your agencies at all, you will _only_ accept orders from me, and in turn I only report to the DNI and the President. You will be based in Los Angeles with the rest of the team. So…. For the record, do you, Agent Miller, and you, Agent Rizzo, choose to join our team?"

When they both nodded and eagerly said "Yes, Ma'am!" she nodded and said "Good! Now we've had a change of plans I'm afraid, I _was_ going to have you meet us tomorrow to fly to California together once I'd had your transfers processed, but due to other matters which occurred today the team are now flying out tonight. Therefore you will be taken home to pack whatever you need in the interim, and then straight to Andrews to get on the plane" She handed over some paperwork. "Fill out and sign these please, and we'll have our people arrange for the agency removalists to ship the rest of your belongings to you in California."

She kept talking as they started filling out the paperwork she'd given them. "I will get my people working on getting your transfers, clearances and the rest processed tomorrow and bring them with me when I can follow you, but you'll be going back tonight with the team and the… what was it? Oh yes, backup singers. Are there any questions ladies?"

When they shook their heads she went on. "Well in that case I will see you when I get to Los Angeles, enjoy your flight." She collected the Presidential orders and the rest of her paperwork and Casey escorted her out to hand her over to her protective detail.

* * *

When she'd left, the two women turned to Sarah and Carina pretty much repeated Zondra's question. "What the fuck Blondie? What the hell's going on here?"

She beamed at her. "You've just joined a team that makes the CAT Squad look ordinary Red!"

Zondra jumped in because Carina still looked a little dazed "What…." She stopped in frustration as she realised that most of what she wanted to ask about was going to have to wait until her clearance had been upgraded, but as Sarah had already said there was one thing she _could_ talk about, so she said "For a start, explain _this_!" as she waved at the two of them.

Sarah beamed again (OK, that was going to get old real quick!). "I was sent to California to recover something that Larkin had stolen and sent to a supposed accomplice…."

Carina broke in "Yeah, sorry about that Sarah, I heard that the two of you were together for a while…."

Sarah cut her off angrily "Larkin and I were _never_ together Red! Casey did me a favour when he shot the bastard!" They whipped their heads around to stare at Casey, who'd just walked back in, at that "I don't know what you heard but I'll lay money that it was mainly Larkin's lies and stories. He was incompetent and he spent two years constantly trying to get into my pants even though…."

She stopped and glanced at Chuck before she turned to Carina. "Red, you're the expert on all things sexual, did you ever get a gay vibe from Larkin?"

Carina frowned as she thought about it. "Are you kidding? The Golden Boy, gay? Come on, he screwed more women than….." She was running every encounter she'd ever had with Bryce Larkin through her head, as she also had a photographic memory, and the brainless bimbo was just as much an act as enjoying being a sexbot had been. "No…. you're right! He was very convincing, but it was always the cute guys who caught his eye first, not the women."

She saw the 'told ya!' look on Chuck's face and her eyes widened, oh no, she finally gets him back and he's _gay_? But what about? Sarah read the looks crossing over her face. "Oh hell no! Larkin was Chuck's room mate at Stanford, so he had Larkin trying to come on to him, and Chuck's best friend had called it when she met him." That last made Carina send her a questioning look and she nodded, figures, her dream guy's best friend is a lesbian, curiouser and curiouser cried Alice.

With that out of the way, Sarah continued. "So I get to Los Angeles and engage the target, the woman who let me in calls for him and he comes out, totally engrossed in reading something as he's walking and then he looks up and it's Charlie! We were rambling on for a while, trying to catch up on the last eighteen years, but then I hear people running. I thought that he must have been keeping me occupied until reinforcements could arrive so I got ready to fight it out, then Mama ran in!"

"But, I thought you said that Graham had her under lock and key to keep you under control?"

She nodded grimly. "That was what the bastard always told me, but he _never_ had her! So that's where we are, we've set up this new group in Los Angeles and you'll be working with us now."

Carina and Zondra were shaking their heads, but Carina turned to Chuck. "So Chuckie, how about you and Johnny giving us some time to catch up with our girl here?"

Her response came from Sarah. "Carina, no! We've only been back together for less than a week, we can have a girls' night to catch up once things have settled down, and we need to get out of here ASAP!"

That had them staring at her again, Zondra found her voice first. "All of this has happened in less than a week? How the fuck did _that_ happen? And what's the big hurry to get out of D C, did you rob a bank or something?"

Sarah looked at Chuck and Casey before turning back to her. "How it happened this way is part of what you're not cleared to hear yet, but the need to get out of here in a hurry is because we've crossed Graham, twice in a week now... And he's pissed! That's why we have all the backup singers out there."

Carina and Zondra froze at that, because crossing Graham was tantamount to suicide. There were no further questions after that, they just grabbed their bags and got the hell out of there. It didn't take them long to pack what they'd need until the rest of their things could be shipped over and they handed the keys and the finalised paperwork for that to the ones who would be remaining in DC.

* * *

They _did_ want to ask questions when they were just waved though at the gates for Andrews and hustled aboard a C-37B in civilian livery, but they waited until they were in the air and everybody had visibly relaxed for that. The question about the gate and the plane was answered by Casey saying that they'd been coming in and out of Andrews quite often over the last ten or twelve years so they and the plane were well known, and the General would have had orders sent through ahead of them to clear the way.

Everyone needed a drink by then so they broke out the food and drink and settled down for the flight back to LA, spending the time catching up. Carina got drunk and morose after a while and tried to clear the air with Casey. "Johnny, about that picture, it wasn't me who sent it to everyone, I promise you! I don't even know who it was."

Zondra grinned at that. "Why didn't you ask Red? I do! It was the Bimbo, she was pissed because Casey just turned her down flat, and then went home with you. She was crowing about how she'd shown him, because she sent it to everyone after you sent it to us."

She looked at Casey. "Sorry Casey, but I was pissed at you at the time for what you'd said to Red."

Carina looked at him hesitantly. "Are we good Johnny?"

He smiled as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "Of course we are!"

* * *

Zondra looked on, mostly relieved for Carina but also feeling a little left out. Sarah picked that up and chuckled evilly. "Do you think Zee would be Jeff's type Charlie?"

Chuck spluttered into his drink at that, and Zondra worked out enough from that to give Sarah a 'You'll be paying for that bitch!' look, which just got a grin from her. "Hey, everyone else is taken, and you better stay the hell away from my stepfather!"

That of course led to questions and Chuck explained that Jeff was actually a great guy, but he'd probably be too tame for her, while Sarah's stepfather had been known to both of them as Uncle Bry their whole lives, and he'd married Sarah's mother a few years ago. He stopped and looked at her then and she nodded after she'd stopped to think, because the girls were more mellow like this. With that they launched into the story about how Sarah had a sixteen year old stepsister now, and a seventeen year old cousin. They stared at her at that, whispering. "Ironpants'?" and she nodded with a smile, but looked a question at Casey, and when he nodded she added. "Casey has an eighteen year old daughter too, and Chuck has a sixteen year old half sister as well as his older sister now."

When Sarah dropped the bombshell that _Chuck_ had twin fourteen year old daughters though, they were so stunned that she grabbed her phone to get a picture of it. Zondra came out of it first and looked calculatingly at Chuck but Sarah shook her head. "No Zee, you heard me right when I told you about him, Charlie _is_ only six months older than me, but he started young, _real_ young! The girls' mother is actually one of Chuck's lesbian best friends, she wanted to experiment when her hormones were kicking in as she went into her teens and Charlie agreed because she meant, means, a lot to him but Lou got pregnant. Her father dragged her off to Israel as soon as he found out about it and she only came back with the girls in Christmas Oh One. Ellie says that this one almost fainted when Lou introduced the girls to him as his daughters…." she added "Ellie is Nora, Chuck's sister who I told you about, they had to have their names changed when they were kids" when she saw the question on their faces.

Carina was plastered by the time they landed at Bob Hope and ran the C-37 into their hangar, but not enough to stop her recognising the features that made the other planes in the hangar U-28As, though these ones were based on the new Propfans so she asked what the hell they were doing with two special ops planes and helicopter? Or the LC Twenty One and Agusta? (Carina and Zondra may not have been in Sarah's league but they _were_ among the best of the rest, so they'd gone on plenty of special ops missions and the U-28s was a familiar sight to them, and the 600 was close enough to a Little Bird that it was bound to be used for the same things if they had U-28s, especially with the custom rotor and tail it had.)

Chuck shrugged. "We had the Twenty Eight built for us in Two Thousand and it's handy to have because it can go a lot of places our Thirty Seven can't, it's single pilot rated, just about everyone's certified on it and of course it's a hell of a lot cheaper to run. We've made a few improvements to it in the time we've had it and it's quite a good plane. We've made quite a few improvements to the Loach too over the last ten years or so, and it's quite handy too. We added the C Twenty One and One Oh Nine to the stable in Ninety Eight to maintain our cover on missions, as you can see the One Oh Nine has been improved and it's a good helicopter. The C Twenty One is relatively stock and it's normally down in Dallas."

They hadn't missed the inference there. "All these actually _belong_ to you? They haven't just been allocated to you for the current assignment?"

Sarah grinned. "I told you we make the CATS look ordinary! Get him to tell you the story about how the Thirty Seven was cheap because they _only_ had to pay to have it completely rebuilt as a G Five Fifty back in early Oh Two sometime."

Zondra pointed up to the C-37 with a questioning look (because she had an idea of what that would cost too, and what's more she knew that early 2002 was a year and a half before Gulfstream had released the G550. For that matter she'd also caught that he'd said that they'd had their _first_ U-28 built for them in _2000_ , which was five years before the Air Force got its U-28As for SOCOM and those Propfans had only just come out) and she nodded. Zondra just shook her head at that, what the hell had they gotten themselves into? But Sarah wasn't finished.

"But that's just what they have _here_ , they also have two modified Lakotas, two modified Little Birds, a Mil MI Thirty Eight, another U Twenty Eight like this as well as a stretched variant, two Antonov AN Seventies, an Antonov AN One Twenty Two and _four_ F Fives!"

Zondra looked at Casey to see whether Sarah was joking, but he just nodded to confirm what she said with a smile.

 **A/N: Yes, I've taken a fair bit of artistic license with the aircraft industry in this alternate reality. ;^)**

 **The Russian military hard liners believe that anything they do for the greater glory of Mother Russia is justified. So if those upstart Ukrainians or even worse, Russian companies, aren't honouring Mother Russia, whatever happens to them was their own fault.**

 **As far as making serious modifications to the helicopters, PC-12s and Antonovs, they got eight seriously talented aeronautical engineers (nine including Hank) and four other aircraft experts together and set them up in a facility equipped to fabricate just about anything, so letting them loose with their toys like that is bound to result in some interesting inventions.**

 **And as for Pilatus allocating its jet's designation to the seriously modified PC-12 design, the jet's still an idea, while the Wagon is an existing and quite impressive plane, so it makes sense for them to give the Wagon the PC-24 designation.**


	10. Art For Art's Sake

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Given the state that Carina at least was in, when they got back to El Castillo they just showed them to the apartment that would be their's until they found something else and went to bed. This was the first chance Sarah and Chuck had to talk about what was said at the restaurant.

"Did you mean it, what you said?"

Chuck nodded. "Of course! I know that they've all been telling you about how I searched for you every day that you were away because I was empty without you…. Well now that you're _finally_ back, I want you to stay with me! Auntie Di was a bitch to pull that stunt in front of Carina and Zondra, but Anna showed me those rules she asked her to look up on the quiet, so I understand why she was pushing, she wants to make sure you're safe, just like I do… Did _you_ mean what you said?"

" _YES!_ I've been dreaming about being be back with you ever since Dad took me away, in fact…. When we were in the bunker, I was looking at Ellie's achievements and thought 'this is one hell of a family I'm marrying into!' I tried to tell myself that I didn't mean that, but I lost that argument damned quick because I don't ever want to be apart from you again! So yes! If you'll have me, I'm your's Charlie!"

Carina and Zondra would have been shocked to know what Sarah was joyously doing that night, because they'd watched her put just about every man who tried to get her to do that in hospital or in the ground for two years, and many of them hadn't been being aggressive, just insistent. The smart ones had avoided injury by running, the lucky ones got off lightly, but most of them got hurt, bad.

* * *

Come morning, when Zondra finally got Carina out of bed, they went looking for Sarah, but while she was happy and relieved to have them there, especially Carina, Sarah did _not_ appreciate having to tell Carina to 'Go back and put some fucking clothes on!' Carina was obviously back in the space of trying to wind up Sarah by getting a rise out of Chuck, because she was just wearing a flimsy robe (hopefully with underwear).

Zondra just shook her head at her as she scuttled out, because she'd _told_ her that she was going to piss Sarah off if she tried to play that game here.

When Carina returned, dressed and looking genuinely contrite, Sarah started in on her, telling her in no uncertain terms _NOT_ to try and play her games around her fiancé, her stepfather or Rick Noble, or Skip for that matter, Casey was a big enough boy to take care of himself and if she wanted to have fun with Jeff, that was his business.

Carina was staring at her in shock, they both were actually. "You were _serious_ about that? I thought you two were just pissing about!"

"Have you forgotten that we were kept apart for over _eighteen_ fucking years? I'm not ready to risk losing him again and Chuck feels the same way, so _yes_ , we were fucking serious! Auntie Di thinks that she managed to manoeuvre us into marrying to protect me from seduction missions, because Auntie Mary told them about the old rules that are still on the books that forbid forcing married women into seduction missions or doing anything of the like with their partners, but Chuck knew about that because they got Anna to make sure they still applied… but we're getting married because we can't stand the idea of being apart again, nothing anyone else did!… Speaking of Auntie Mary….. The reason Rick is off limits is that he and Ellie are a couple and he'll be my brother-in-law one day. Ellie is one of the sweetest people I know, but she's _also_ a Navy SEAL with one hell of a temper, you _don't_ want to cross her! And Auntie Mary? You've heard of her, as _Frost_ , and _Akela_! For that matter Auntie Phoebes, Rick's Mom, is six foot two of piss and vinegar who used to be known as Cleopatra Jones! You _don't_ want to fuck with my family Red, if you push them too far you won't come out alive! and for all the fact that you all too often put on that stupid skank act to piss people off, I do love you, so I _don't_ want you dead! And the reason Skip is off limits is that he's gay and it would just upset him, he's too nice to have to put up with that."

Carina was just staring at her but Zondra snorted. "Ellie is a _SEAL_? Come on Blondie, it was working up until you tried _that_!"

When that made Sarah turn on _her_ , she was asking herself why the fuck she opened her mouth. "Just try her Zee! She'll wipe the floor with you…. she always needs more sparring partners actually because not many can keep up with her. Have you ever heard of _Raksha_ Zee?" Zondra nodded "Well Ellie _is_ Raksha!"

Carina looked at Chuck and asked. "If your sister is Raksha and your mother is Frost, who the fuck are _you_ Chuckie?"

Sarah gave her an evil smile. "I would have thought that that was obvious Red… Chuck is _Mowgli..._ he's a SEAL too…. and while we're filling you in on the team, Casey is Baloo, Uncle Bry is Bagheera, and Anna is Rikki, Chuck calls her his pint sized pit bull but I wouldn't suggest _you_ try that because she can kick your arse too… _Now_ are you starting to see what you've joined?"

Carina and Zondra were staring at her, nodding slowly, but something else occurred to Carina. "What about your Mama Sarah? She's obviously one of these people too so who is she?"

Sarah shook her head with a smile. "Mama isn't involved in that side of things much, thank god, but she _was_ a legend in her day, as the Fox, the best analyst the CIA ever had, she generally works on the Information Dominance side of things with Ellie, Skip and Jeff. Chuck, Anna and Auntie Mary work on that side too. Auntie Di commands both sides of the team."

Carina and Zondra had been reduced to standing there, shaking their heads, so Sarah gave an evil grin and said that they may as well see the Dungeon now and led them to the lift.

When they came out of the elevator in the Dungeon and saw the operations centre, Carina and Zondra's 'What the _fuck_?'s tumbled out as one.

Zondra shook her head as she looked at Carina and said "I don't think we're in Kansas any more Toto!" and matched Carina's grin when she replied "Who are you calling a dog, bitch?"

While they were blown away by B1, Carina and Zondra reacted to B2 the way the rest of the operatives had, running from one piece of deadly hardware to the next like kids in a candy store.

They asked the question that Casey never had though, why were most of markings on the weapons and equipment still in Cyrillic? The argument that they'd obtained the weapons etc via the connections that Mary had made in the time when she was trapped in Alexei Volkoff's world was accepted, as that made sense, but the idea that a fairly large and diverse group of Americans could _all_ read Cyrillic well enough that there was no need to relabel everything? That didn't fly anywhere near as well. While they accepted the explanation given, their expressions said that they wouldn't stop until they worked out what was really behind this.

* * *

General Diane Beckman was rather testy by the time she arrived late the next afternoon, for a start her people had spent the last day questioning the ones arrested at the Intersect facility yesterday and examining the equipment (especially the device that had electrocuted Graham's agent), trying to find some proof that Graham had been behind it, but the bastard had covered his tracks too well.

Even with the video recordings her people had been taking throughout, all of the _official_ evidence that they were able to uncover pointed to the agent who died at least being a Fulcrum plant, and Graham's scientists were sticking to the story that they hadn't known half of the people there, so how were they supposed to know that the agents weren't scientists from another area? Her people reported that they'd just looked smug and shrugged when they were told that they would have had to be totally incompetent not to see that those men weren't scientists, because being incompetent wasn't enough to get them charged with anything, and they worked for Graham, so they wouldn't be getting fired either.

Even the surviving agents had solid enough stories to get them released, because their official orders had been to provide covert security for the testing, and they couldn't get away with questioning them more…. _Strenuously_ …. because this issue was attracting a lot of attention and too many people were watching. The one who'd been fried was apparently the only one who had known all the details of the plan to eliminate Chuck, and as far as the others knew that machine was just one of the props they were using to pretend to be scientists.

Most of the equipment was legitimate test equipment, it was just that one device that had been doctored to make it look as though it malfunctioned because it had been damaged when Larkin blew up the facility, but there was nothing obviously wrong with it. Her techs had found a switch which would have fried the machine and destroyed the evidence, but Sarah had stopped anyone getting close enough to activate that switch.

Their orders had obviously been to find out what made Chuck the only one capable of successfully hosting the Intersect, and then make sure that he had a fatal _accident_ with that machine, but the one who had been fried had been a good enough agent to pick up that Chuck had identified some of them at least, so he'd decided to eliminate Chuck before he could talk, because they weren't getting anything useful from him anyway.

What it came down to was that even though she knew with absolute certainty that that bastard Graham was behind this, they didn't have any fucking way to _prove_ it! So he was getting away with it! The only thing the evidence really helped with was squashing Graham's charges that John Casey had attacked and murdered one of the men he had there to provide security without cause, because the video showed the man being evasive when questioned and that he had only received what he was doing his best to have inflicted on Chuck, so the recording, along with the tech's reports about how the machine had been doctored to electrocute whoever was hooked up to it, proved that John had in fact saved _Chuck_ from being murdered! Graham wasn't at all happy to see the way Walker had been working with Casey in that recording, but he didn't say anything because he still wanted to get her back under his control, that was why he'd ordered Bartowski eliminated after the testing was done, because without the Human Intersect there would be no Human Intersect project, so the conditions of that order he was forced to accept would no longer apply and she'd be returned to the CIA.

And then, to top it off… After she'd spent almost a full day searching in vain for proof of that bastard's guilt and been forced to agree with the DNI and the President that while they all _knew_ that he was guilty as sin, there wasn't a damned thing they could do about it!…. she was here, crammed into a rank old Air Force C-21A with half a dozen guards who couldn't carry a conversation if you held a gun to their heads! Some of them were hunky enough and she probably would have found a way to have some fun with them twenty five years ago, even fifteen years ago for that matter, but now they just pissed her off!

The _only_ thing about the last twenty four hours that she could feel happy about was the memory of the Administrator of the DEA's face as he was being forced to acknowledge receipt of the Presidential Order to release Carina Miller to the Human Intersect Project, and seeing Mike kick him in the arse to make him execute those orders _now_! Bob was never going to be a problem, he was a good man, and as she knew he would, he'd launched an investigation into how an agent of Zondra Rizzo's calibre had been pushed aside and buried in nickel and dime gang investigations so much of the time after the CAT Squad was disbanded, she'd been doing more important work than that when she became an agent well over a decade ago!

She suddenly smiled as she remembered that there _was_ another thing she could be happy about, managing to manoeuvre Chuck into proposing and Sarah into accepting that proposal. Those two would _never_ be happy unless they were together, but if they'd worked out that she'd set them up they would have refused on principle. She hadn't wanted to use the fact that marriage would get Sarah out of being ordered to be her targets' and partners' fuck toy, but she would have if she had to…. she was just glad that she didn't have to, as it was bound to have gotten messy.

To avoid all the paperwork that damaging one or more of her protective detail would have required, Diane told them all to shut up and she slept the rest of the way to LA. She was a little mollified to see John and Jeff waiting with the stretch Towncar and Chuck's marvellous Lincoln Continental Stretch Convertible, so the C-21A was released to return to DC and she told her protective detail to get in the Towncar with Jeff while she settled into the back of the Continental. She was tempted to tell John to lose them, but she couldn't do that to Jeff, so she just relaxed for the ride to Pasadena.

* * *

When they arrived in El Castillo, her protective detail tried to argue when they were told to park themselves in the lounge in the Shiloh Security Storage offices while the General went off somewhere else with the people she was calling 'her team', but they were reminded of how she'd gotten the name 'Old Ironpants' when she dressed them down and then stormed off.

Chuck had caught Casey's expression as Carina and Zondra were asking questions about the Cyrillic markings and saw that the fact that he'd held off asking about that himself didn't mean that he hadn't been thinking it, and that didn't bode well. He could also see the other questions that Carina and Zondra didn't know enough to ask yet going through his head, like just how had this group of extraordinary people come together? A couple at this level coming together, that's life, but a group _this_ big? That had to be planned.

When Auntie Di came down to the Dungeon, he took her off to a meeting room with Sarah and his mother to discuss how they were going to handle the fact that John, Carina and Zondra all knew that they weren't being told the whole truth about the team and that was going to cause trouble down the track. It didn't take long to agree that they needed to tell them what was going on, and Mary agreed that it would be best to tell them that she'd been a sleeper when she came to America too.

In a way it was the best time to do this, because the only core member of the group they were missing was Uncle Roan (Dad didn't count), as they had brought most of their best people in from around the country when Sammie arrived and they were looking at a fight with Graham, so they could just sit everyone down and lay it all out. John in particular would most probably have an issue with the Russian defectors (he saw things a little too black and white sometimes), but they were planning on using the fact that he'd accepted the other ones who had been burned and show that their circumstances weren't that much different.

The discussion got a little heated at times, because it turned out John had a bigger issue with the ones who had been literally or effectively burned by the _American_ agencies and military, but eventually John conceded that their reasons for disappearing like that were at least as valid as his had been, probably more. He had to laugh when he saw that 'Thebes Security' was actually a combination of Phoebe's real name and the identity she'd made famous as an operative.

He _did_ have an issue with Mary having been a KGB sleeper up until the mid seventies, but had to concede that he _knew_ that she'd been working for America for the last sixteen years at least, because he'd been working closely with her for that long! So he let that go as well.

With that out of the way, John went through all of their qualifications and shook his head, all up they had about seventy five 'friends', of which about two thirds had been high end special operations operatives (many them Russian, which explained the Cyrillic weapons markings), with most of them functioning as intelligence operatives at times (the same way both he and Bry Mills had started actually), and about a third had been high end intelligence operatives, with most of _them_ operating in special operations functions at times. They also had over a dozen high end analysts who'd been burned because they'd uncovered intel that they weren't supposed to.

Over a third of them were Russian, or ex-Soviet at least, nearly a third American and Israelis made up about half of the rest. A handful of other people, like Rick and Vicky, who were working for Auntie Di _on_ the books made up the rest of it. It didn't take John long to come to the same conclusion the General had, this was one hell of a formidable team they had here!

* * *

Once the new team members had been filled in on and integrated into the group, Diane disgustedly conceded that she _had_ to get back to DC, but she wasn't in the mood to sit in the cabin with those lumps again…. She suddenly turned to Chuck. "What's the range of the Twenty Eight after all those changes you spent millions on Chuck?"

Sarah was looking at him. "Millions?"

He shook his head. "She's exaggerating! It was only about one and a half million, give or take, all up and that's including the new glass cockpit and fly by wire systems to allow remote operation, side stick controls, new wings and tanks and the propfan…. As for the range, it's well over three thousand miles at fast cruise now Auntie Di, why?"

"Because you never got me certified on the Thirty Seven, but I _am_ certified on the normal Twenty Eight, and the flight to DC and a few take offs and landings should give me enough flight hours to update that certification to include the new systems, controls and propfan you fitted! Who's willing to come along as the certifier and bring it back afterwards?"

"The Thirty Seven would get you back quicker Auntie Di, and be a lot more comfortable too."

"I know that! But if I get stuck in the cabin with those idiots up there again I'm going to shoot one of them, and I don't need the paperwork!"

"You're not shooting anyone in my plane!"

"Oh, so it's _your_ plane now is it? I thought it was _our_ plane?"

"It's my plane when I'm talking to some crazy old lady who's talking about shooting holes in it!" He laughed. "I'd come with you Auntie Di, but I don't think we could get away with the Human Intersect disappearing for most of a day just yet."

"I know that Honey, but just about everyone here is certified on the Twenty Eight, surely _someone_ can come with me?"

Anna shared a look with Chuck and nodded. "I'll come with you General, people don't pay as much attention to me and the Twenty Eight's much nicer to fly with the Propfan setup, a hell of a lot quicker too, so the trip back won't be so bad."

She nodded with a smile. "Thank you Anna."

With that she called her office to get the flight plans from Bob Hope to Ronald Reagan and an escort to pick them up at Ronald Reagan organised while Casey called the airport to get the Twenty Eight brought out of the hangar, fueled up and readied (they had an on-call mechanic service there).

Auntie Di was wearing an evil grin and civilian trousers (being the same size as her sister was handy) as they got into the elevator, because her protective detail was going to be getting one hell of a shock when they got to the airport and saw what they were flying back to DC in.

She was right about that, as their shock at the sight of the plane was only exceeded by that of the General climbing into the pilot's seat to start going through the pre-flight check lists with Anna.

Getting interrupted to be asked what that thing on the cargo door was pissed her off so she snapped. "That's the jump door, which reminds me…" She craned her head around to shout out the cabin door. "Colonel Casey?"

He popped his head in straight away as he was just outside with Chuck and Sarah talking about the modifications to the plane. "Yes Ma'am?"

"Do you have any parachutes here?"

He pushed down his grin, because he had a good idea where this was going. "I believe so Ma'am, why do you ask?"

"Because I'd like to borrow some in case of back seat drivers!"

"I'm sorry Ma'am, we can't allow that because you don't have any jump masters on board who are qualified for the setup we have on the Twenty Eight."

"Very well Major, I'll just have to hope they stay quiet then, because I hear that the passengers don't get drowned out as much as they used to be with this new Propfan setup."

"No Ma'am, it's much quieter with this setup."

With that, he watched them going through the check lists and then had Anna seal the door behind him as he left, as soon as they had clearance they taxied out and took off. John was laughing about how the protective detail had been deathly quiet after listening to their discussion about getting rid of back seat drivers.

Sarah had noted how much quieter their Twenty Eight was than the other ones she'd been on and around, and that it took off and climbed one hell of a lot quicker too. She'd heard that the Propfan versions of these planes were fast but she was willing to bet that this one was faster than the 'ordinary' Propfans. Between the obvious performance improvements and that glass cockpit which was even better than the Air Force jets she'd flown... oh yeah, she definitely wanted to fly this one!

Anna came back the next morning, telling them how much the General loved the Twenty Eight the way it was now and laughing because her protective detail hadn't said a word for the entire flight, even when she asked them how they were doing when she came back to use the toilet, they'd just nodded.

* * *

With the effort it had taken to override the ones arguing that a something as important as the human intersect needed to be controlled by their intelligence masters at the CIA and Graham winding up the old school types with his heavily edited stories about how Beckman had allowed her Pit Bull to arbitrarily cancel the approved testing of her supposed Human Intersect and then kill one of the people providing security for the tests, they had quite a few people in DC demanding to see proof that this 'human intersect' could deliver. That was why, just after Carina and Zondra joined the team, Sarah and Casey were in Casey's apartment, looking at a screen that was split to show Diane, and Langston Graham. Graham made no attempt to cover up the fact that he was angry about everything that had happened, especially having Sarah taken out of his control, and was demanding that they come up with results on this.

They knew that if they weren't successful, he'd be running all over DC, fanning the fires and whipping the mob into a frenzy about how much money Beckman was wasting and how she was flaunting the authority of the established order, so that he could drag her down. From that, it appeared that their fears about him losing all objectivity were justified, because he seemed to have forgotten that if he tore Auntie Di down, the CIA would lose the services of the Special Projects Group, who they depended on for much of their intel, but the fact remained that they had no choice, they had to play his game.

All they had to go on for this assignment he'd brought to them was the report that there was a trail of suspicious deaths stretching across Europe and the middle east that was supposedly heading for Los Angeles, though Graham claimed that he had no idea where _that_ particular piece of intel had come from. He also claimed not to know where the intel that many foreign intelligence agencies were apparently very interested in whatever this was had come from. It wasn't hard to see why Graham would be pushing something like this on them to resolve, because it would take a miracle for them to come out of it looking good. The video-conference was wound up with the General saying that she was sending through everything they had been given.

They swore when they saw just how little Graham had provided them to work with, but printed out the images and called for Chuck to come up and look at them. Chuck was drawing a blank and getting frustrated, when his gaze fell on the newspaper sitting on the coffee table. At that moment he was very grateful to Casey for being a dinosaur and holding onto the old ways, because the newspaper's front page article about an art auction that night triggered a flash of information that tied what Graham had given them together, and brought up other information that they needed.

"Ah. Guys? Does the name La Ciudad mean anything to you?"

Both Sarah and Casey had been involved in assignments that had had some connection to the elusive arms dealer known as La Ciudad, so he certainly had their attention with _that_. They sat down and recorded what he'd come up with, then Chuck moved out of range of the camera while they they initiated another video-conference with Diane and Graham (or rather, they contacted her and she linked Graham in) to discuss what Chuck had come up with.

Graham insisted that Chuck go to the auction to identify La Ciudad, and while she agreed in principle with Sarah that the danger to Chuck wasn't justified, Diane knew far better than her just how capable he was of looking after himself and others and the fact remained that no-one else had any chance of identifying La-Ciudad, so she made a show of reluctantly agreeing to the need for him to be there. Once they'd laid out the plans for the operation and disconnected the links, Chuck came forward to discuss what they were going to do. The time frame was too tight to get many people into the auction, all they could manage was Chuck and Sarah as guests and Casey as a bartender, though they'd have Carina, Zondra and half of the Thebes Security team on-site to provide backup. Chuck decided to use his Navy identity, Charles Carmichael, as it shouldn't be known outside of the U.S. military, while Sarah went with one of her core cover IDs, Rebecca Franco.

Ellie and Anna took Sarah to find a dress, because they knew what Chuck had in his wardrobe _and_ they knew him best, so they could help her pick out something he'd like, and would go with what he had. They all laughed at the saleswoman who tried to convince Sarah that the flaming red dress she was trying to flog would go with everything and suit every occasion, and then they left to find a store where the staff could understand what 'understated' and 'elegant' meant. After that they spent a couple of hours looking through better stores until they found the right dress, and the right shoes, jewellery and clutch to go with it.

Even with the open limit cards she'd had to use with the CIA, Sarah lost her breath when she saw what that dress cost but Ellie laughed, pointing out that she couldn't wear a cheap dress when Chuck was wearing top of the line Armani, but while a good suit that was worn enough to show familiarity said that a man had money, a lady _always_ had to have a new dress for a major event. This showed more familiarity with the rules for these types of functions than she would have expected from Ellie, so Sarah just looked at her and she laughed again. "Who do you think went to these things when we had a mission Sarah? Uncle Roan gave up on John after he'd failed him from Seduction School twice because he couldn't learn how to dress or behave as old money, so it had to be Chuck, and Anna or I as his partners, so we've all collected nice wardrobes for ourselves over the last ten or twelve years."

Sarah just shook her head and they headed back to El Castillo.

The professional level hair and makeup station in the Dungeon apartment was another surprise, and by the time they were ready to leave she felt like a million dollars, which wasn't that surprising seeing as the outfit she was wearing cost at least ten to fifteen times what the ones the CIA set her up in had.

* * *

The rest of them were in place by the time that they pulled up at the event in the stretch town car, but things went awry before they even entered the event, as some klutz bumped into Chuck on the steps leading up to it and smeared a canapé on his shirt. Chuck went to try and do something about it in the mens' room, but while he was in there, seeing the man washing his hands beside him in the mirror triggered a flash of a number of images related to those he'd seen for La Ciudad. The man noticed the look he gave him as a result of that flash and made a snarky comment, so Chuck gave some platitudes and left hurriedly to get to Sarah to tell her that the next man coming out of the mens' room had something to do with what they were there for.

She swore when she realised that she was going to have to try and get some information out of him, and the others listening in grinned at her words, and worried tone, as she said "I'm going to have to work him a little to get any information out of him, are you OK with that baby?" They also smiled and nodded at Chuck's response "Yes, of course, just be safe!" with the sound of a kiss.

Unfortunately, the man had been looking for Chuck as he came out and he saw him with the stunning blonde, so when she went to work him, she ended up with a pistol pressed into her side as she was escorted from the room. Casey stopped Chuck from going after them, pointing out that he couldn't be seen doing anything, and that he needed to stay here and try to spot La Ciudad. As he left, Chuck grabbed his arm and bit out "Get her back safe!" Casey nodded and took off, a little disturbed by the threatened mayhem clear in Chuck's tone if he let anything happen to her.

Chuck downed the drink Casey had made him and started to circulate, as he'd drive himself mad with worry if he stood at the bar thinking about what may be happening to Sarah. He soon found himself in front of the picture which had been prominent in the flashes he'd had that morning, but it was in a different frame, which in turn prompted further flashes which showed how many small containers of plutonium had been hidden inside the other frame (and that it had been invented by the British SIS for the specific purpose of moving things like that around the world undetected), and dispatches which showed where that plutonium had gone to.

At that point he was interrupted by hearing "Beautiful painting, no?" He turned to smile at the Latin beauty, Malena, who'd spoken, making small talk until the music of the tango started. Malena looked so wistful as she said that she _loved_ to tango that Chuck decided that he could look around the room as he danced, and it might get his mind off what he was hearing over the damned earwig, so he led her onto the dance floor. Malena was quite a good dancer, but he was more than a little uncomfortable with the way she was rubbing up against him and what she was whispering throatily to him, making it quite clear what she had in mind after the dance. When he ended the dance with a dip though, she threw her head back with an excited laugh and her hair fell away from her neck to expose a scar that triggered enough information flashes to confirm that whoever that Brit in the bathroom was, he w _asn't_ La Ciadad, because he currently had _her_ in his arms.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sarah was being held captive up on the roof, and she was being subjected to something that was more a sexual assault than a search, being felt up by one of the goons while the other one held her inappropriately and the one in charge laughed, egging them on. The only reason they hadn't died yet was that Skip had passed on her signal to their waiting support team to hold off until she'd gotten some information out of these slimey limeys. The man who Chuck had seen was demanding to know who she was again when Casey burst through the door, identified himself as a Federal agent and told them to surrender.

That was where it got strange, because the one in charge arrogantly identified himself as British Intelligence and was adamant that they had full authority to be here and that, as per agreements between the proper authorities, this was _their_ case so he must leave _now_ (ignoring the fact that his men were basically in the process of sexually assaulting a woman right there in front of them). Casey repeated his demand that they drop their weapons (adding 'and let that woman go!'), but the man just repeated that this was _their_ case and told him to get out. When Casey repeated his demand the third time and the Brits raised their guns at him, their intentions obvious, Sarah made her move, breaking free of the goon who had one arm wrapped around her and was squeezing her breast painfully, and she did a fair bit of damage to him in the fifteen to twenty seconds before she killed him. The other two ignored Casey then as they swung their guns towards her, and the support team opened up with their suppressed AS VAL assault rifles, shooting away their guns (and most of the hands holding them) first, then shredding them, it was all over within twenty seconds.

Casey hurried over to the Brit in charge, demanding to know who they were working with in an attempt to get _something_ from him before he died, but the man was still adamant that they were properly authorised to be there because of the agreement between their boss and the Director of the CIA, he died saying that but they had it all recorded, everything from the moment Sarah was taken up to the roof by the three Brits. Their support team had been waiting in a room upstairs, so as soon as Jeff and Skip identified that she was being taken to the roof, they high tailed it up there to get into position. Skip told Sarah that the team was waiting upstairs and passed on her order for them to wait, as she was hoping to get some information from the Brits, but as soon as they got to the roof, the one in charge just launched into demanding to know who she was and what she was doing there (without identifying himself, he only did _that_ after Casey identified himself as a Federal agent). When Sarah kept up the act of being just a frightened woman who didn't know what was going on, he'd chuckled and said. "I think we better see what she has on her, don't you lads?", and that was when the 'search' started.

Just as the man expired, Jeff said that Chuck was being taken out of the auction room and from the dialogue they were hearing, he was in trouble. Sarah went to find the XR40 (a Boberg XR9-S modified to take and fire .40 S&Ws) pistol from her thigh holster on the Brit who searched her's body, but Ellie stopped her, handing her a Glock 20 and saying… "This will be more use if you have to fight, just make sure I get _both_ of you back in one piece Sarah!" Sarah hugged her and ran down the stairs, with Casey on her heels.

* * *

Things hadn't been going too well there either, because while Chuck was trying to keep Malena occupied with small talk until the others got back, one of Larkin's frat buddies from Stanford had stumbled up, drunk off his arse and all but shouting at him "What the hell are you doing here Bartowski? Didn't you get the message when your girlfriend dumped your arse and moved up to Bryce the moment they kicked you out of Stanford for cheating? You don't belong in our world you loser!" Chuck shut him up with a nerve pinch but the damage was already done, he'd caught the signal she gave so it was no surprise when he felt a pistol being pressed into his back.

While he was sure that he could get out of this with little risk of injury, there was zero possibility of doing that in public without exposing himself as more than he was supposed to be, so when she suggested that they take this to her room he just went along with it. On the way up to Malena's room though, he realised that he couldn't afford to be seen in action by Malena or her men _either_ , because he'd be exposed as soon as they went into custody, Shit!

Malena was having fun taunting Chuck while he kept up the frightened civilian act, saying that he'd been trying to impress his date, but she'd dumped him for some rich guy as soon as she caught him out (he was banking on the fact that with their dress sense, they couldn't tell a high end Armani from a knockoff). When she decided that he didn't have anything else to tell her, she started slowly screwing a suppressor onto her pistol and he was thinking that he'd _have_ to let them see what he could do, but then a thumping outside the door caught her and her guards' attention.

They called out to the guard outside the door, and when he didn't answer, they started bringing their pistols up so Chuck hissed "Get down!" into his mic, calling "Guards at two and three o'clock from the door!" as they started firing and he kicked the chair he was tied to over. He'd broken the chair apart and freed himself within fifteen to twenty seconds, and he surged up to knock out La Ciudad with a blow to the base of the skull. By that time they'd taken out the guards in the room using his targeting information so he called them to cease fire, going to let them in when they did so.

They came up with a story about a shoot out between some drug dealers and the DEA and FBI strike team who came in to take them down (using the Thebes Security team to pose as them, of course). Diane organised cleaners to come in and make everything look the way it had, and arranged for a C-21A from Edwards to get to Bob Hope Airport ASAP, along with trusted FBI agents to take custody of the prisoner and the Brits' bodies from the 'FBI' strike team who delivered them to the airport. One of the 'FBI' strike team also handed over an envelope with British SIS agents' credentials and guns.

* * *

By the time the prisoner and contraband was handed off, Diane had filled the DNI in on what had happened and sent him the videos of everything that had happened on the roof, and Sarah and Casey were in a video-conference with Diane and Graham (with the DNI hiding the fact that he was linked in). Graham was looking a little smug as he pointed out that their team had almost lost the Human Intersect, so Sarah went to town, saying that they would never have been separated from him if it wasn't for those foreign operatives who had taken her away at gunpoint and who had for some reason been insisting that they had authority to operate on U.S. soil, and in fact that this was _their_ operation and the U.S. Federal agents should stand down.

Graham went quiet at that, and Diane asked whether he knew anything about their claims? He hesitated as he tried to think of a way out of admitting that he was aware of the Brits' presence, but he couldn't, so he said.

"The head of the British SIS and I have had a gentleman's agreement for some time to allow each other's agents to operate on their soil."

"Has the Director of National Intelligence signed off on this 'gentlemen's agreement' Director? Is the DNI even aware of it?"

"No, the agreement was made before that role was created."

"And you didn't feel it necessary to advise your superior of agreements that you'd unilaterally made with a foreign power about operations on U.S. soil _after_ the DNI's role _was_ created?"

"It slipped my mind."

"What of this claim of their's that this was a British SIS operation so U.S. Federal agents had no authority to intercede _on U.S. soil_? Was that something _else_ that slipped your mind?"

"We never specifically discussed the current operation coming onto U.S. soil, but the nature of the agreement is that agents will be permitted to follow through on any on-going operations."

"You seem to have omitted all of this from the briefing that you gave _us_ Director, in fact you specifically informed us that you had no idea of what was involved here, that information would have been quite useful to my team in handling this matter."

Graham tried to stare her down. "That information had no bearing to the operation you were engaged for!"

Diane glared at him. "The facts of the matter say otherwise Director!" She paused to try and calm herself. "We shall see what the DNI's opinion is on this Director, but the evidence I have here is saying that you deliberately attempted to sabotage my team, and through withholding significant information, you put at least three members of my team's lives at risk, this is not acceptable! It will be interesting to see that the Brits have to say when we return the bodies of their men…"

"What? Your people have murdered the representatives of a friendly power who were here on an authorised operation? When the British government hears about this they'll be in one of their black sites for the rest of their lives, unless a more direct approach is taken! You'll be finished too Beckman!"

At that point the DNI activated his screen. "I'd be careful what you say Director, because at the moment _you're_ the one who's the most likely to be going up on charges!"

Graham had murder in his eye as he glared at Diane, but the DNI ignored that as he went on. "Agent Walker was taken at gunpoint to the roof by these individuals, and once up there they proceeded to essentially sexually assault her, while repeatedly demanding to know who she was and what she was doing there without ever identifying themselves to her. For this reason Agent Walker endured this treatment without breaking her cover as a civilian until after Major Casey had arrived, identifying himself as a Federal agent and ordering them to surrender. Instead of surrendering however, these individuals _then_ identified themselves as British Intelligence, insisting that they were authorised to be there and that this was _their_ operation, and telling him to leave. Meanwhile they continued to handle Agent Walker inappropriately. Agent Casey repeated that he was a Federal Officer and again ordered them to surrender, to no avail, and when he attempted a third time they raised their guns at him with deliberate intent, so at that point Agent Walker dealt with the one holding her so that she could come to her partner's aid. When she did that the remaining two British agents turned their guns on Agent Walker so their support team put them down to protect her."

Graham shook his head. "This is obviously nothing more than a fiction that General Beckman's agents have concocted in an attempt to cover up their murder of a friendly power's agents Sir!"

The DNI looked grim. "It is most definitely _not_ fiction Director, because I have watched multiple video viewpoints of this event! Which brings us to _this_!" He hit a key to play the video segment of the SIS agent's dying words about the agreement between the head of the SIS and the Director of the CIA, then went on.

"This, and your comments to General Beckman earlier, represent a serious breach of protocol and your duties of disclosure, and proof that you have grossly exceeded your authority Director. You _never_ had the authority to authorise any foreign power to operate on U.S. soil! That always has, and always will be a decision that the _President_ must make, I am quite sure that you were aware of that and that was why you attempted to conceal your actions when the Director of National Intelligence office was created above you. I will be seeking confirmation from my predecessor on this, but did you ever inform him that you had taken it upon yourself to grant foreign powers leave to operate on U.S. soil Director? I will not use the word 'authorise', because as I said, we both know that you never had the authority to do that!"

"I was operating under the understanding that it was part of my remit as the Director of Central Intelligence sir."

"I will be requiring you to identify precisely which part of the description of the role of the DCI that you got that understanding from Director, because I am quite sure that I never got that understanding from anything I've read in your job description…. Now, on to another matter…. Did you _also_ agree to allow the British to smuggle weapons grade plutonium into the United States, in breach of all nuclear agreements? Before you answer, please remember that we now have access to all manner of information that we didn't prior to the Intersect Director."

Graham knew that he was in deep shit now, because this bastard had all but said that they had proof of this. "I never specifically agreed to that sir, but the SIS _may_ have interpreted it that way when we agreed that they could follow the operation through to the end, and I believe that they were forced to use the expected grade of plutonium in order to pass tests being done by any prospective buyers."

"So that is a yes. I am quite disturbed and disappointed by this whole business Director, and I am sure that the President will be just as disappointed when I advise him on this! Do _you_ know where that plutonium is at the moment?"

Once again, he was implying that they _did_ , so it was too dangerous to try and lie about it. "I believe that it is currently in the British Consulate in Los Angeles sir, they were planning on returning it to the Britain by diplomatic pouch."

The DNI shook his head at him. "I want details of every agreement you've made with foreign powers Director, whether they be general or related to specific operations, and I want them _now_!"

"I can't discuss things of this nature in front of these people sir..."

"It will be public knowledge soon enough Director, because I can assure you that the President will be _formally_ cancelling each and every one of those agreements with the relevant heads of state, so talking in front of people who are cleared as high as you and I isn't an issue, _talk!_ And I better not find out down the track that any more agreements have 'slipped your mind'!"

Graham spoke for over an hour, detailing every agreement he'd made that was still in effect. It was obvious that he wanted to kill Diane, the DNI and everyone involved in this, but there was no way out of this. When he was done, he gritted out. "will that be all... _sir_?"

The DNI had what he wanted, so he was a little more mellow now. "I think so Director, unless you have something General?"

* * *

She kept her face impassive as she said "Just this sir." and handed Graham the bill for the operation.

"What? This was a trial operation, you can't expect me to pay this!"

The DNI cut in. "I never saw any indication in the documentation that this was anything other than a genuine mission Director, and it has bagged us La Ciudad…." He stopped to think for a moment. "General, make arrangements to take La Ciudad into custody the moment she arrives at Andrews... We'll hang onto her until we find someone to pick up the tab for this, but I don't see us having any trouble finding someone to pick up the cost of the operation to get a prize like _that_ if Director Graham is unwilling to do so. I'm sure that Bob would jump at the chance…... "

Diane schooled her expression as she said. "Yes sir" but Graham cut in.

"Wait a minute! This was the CIA's operation so we _will_ be getting La Ciudad, but these charges are ridiculous! Over Twenty Thousand for a dress, over Three Thousand for _shoes_ , Twenty _Five_ thousand for jewellery, Six Thousand for an Armani suit, nearly _Sixty_ Thousand for a Towncar?"

"As you know Director, the time window between your... request... that my agents go in to locate and apprehend La Ciudad, and the event that we believed that La Ciudad would be attending was only a matter of hours. We couldn't ship what was required to Los Angeles in that time frame and all the rental limousines were already booked out so they had to run around and buy whatever they needed. Agent Walker, as an experienced CIA Agent, pointed out that appearances are all important in a mission of this nature as they would fail if they were rejected because they didn't project the right image, so she took Mister Bartowski shopping for a suitable outfit, then found something that matched for herself. They certainly looked the part of a successful couple when they arrived."

"Don't try to pull that General, they just bought all the most expensive labels they could find because someone else was picking up the tab!"

"But Agent Walker said that the outfits she was issued by the CIA were always designer labels?"

"Not _real_ labels for god's sake! We have people making up knockoffs all the time! Anyway, the CIA isn't going to pay for their fancy wardrobes, they can return them and get the money back, and jewellery and the car too!"

"I'm afraid that that isn't possible Director, because Agent Walker's dress was all but torn off of her when she was being sexually assaulted by those British agents, and Mister Bartowski's suit was destroyed while he was being tortured by La Ciudad. The necklace was also damaged and some of the jewels were lost when it was torn off of her and we have been given a quote of around five thousand to restore it to the value it was, so we'd only be able to recover about twenty thousand there. We _can_ attempt to sell the car and return what we can get for it, but I'm afraid that that isn't likely to be what they paid for it, because they were in such a hurry to get ready for the mission that they had to pay the asking price, and if we have another operation on a similar timeframe we're likely to have to go out and buy another car for that…. Hmmm, I _am_ prepared to absorb half of the cost of the car to retain it for that eventuality, but as you are aware from the terms you agreed to to engage the Human Intersect team, it is a strictly pay as you go operation at the moment because we must recover the costs of any operations from the people who engage us as we as yet have no on-going budget allocations for our operations."

Graham was about ready to explode at that, he was well aware of the terms, he just hadn't expected to be had over a barrel like this, but he was in enough trouble as it was. "Very well General, I will agree to your retaining the car on those terms, with the understanding that the CIA will _not_ be charged for another car on any of these operations, I'll take that twenty thousand for the jewellery and from now on, the CIA will supply whatever they wear for any operations that you do for us!"

Diane was struggling to hide her smile of triumph. "That is understood Director, if you'll just wait a minute I will adjust the figure for the car and jewellery…."

She went on as she adjusted the invoice and printed a new one. "You've noted, I hope, the one week payment terms and late payment penalties Director? I apologise for that but I believe that they were written in by the ODNI's accounts people to comply with some standard frameworks that are coming in."

Graham stopped just short of snatching the invoice off of her and storming out, but he bit out "Sir, General" before he left in much the same way he had in his last meeting with these people.

* * *

Once he was gone and the door was sealed behind him, the DNI shook his head. "I think you better watch your back with the Director from now on General, he lost a good deal today, and even more in the last week, and I believe that he will most likely be laying the blame for all of that at your feet."

Diane just nodded. "Yes Sir."

He turned his attention to Sarah then. "Please allow me to formally apologise for your treatment at the hands of those British agents, Agent Walker… Though actually I believe the people who need to formally apologise are the Brits... Yes, I will get the President to make that another requirement when they hand over the plutonium that they have at their Consulate. The President has daughters, so I don't see him letting something like that slide after he sees the video of what happened on that roof..."

When Sarah went to say something he shook his head. "I'm sorry Agent Walker, but the President at least needs to see that video, because it will be a key part of convincing him to formally revoke all those illicit agreements that the Director made. I will do my best to restrict it to only those people who _need_ to see it though."

She nodded resignedly. "Yes sir, thank you."

"It's a pity that dress was destroyed, you looked quite lovely in it when you first arrived on the roof. I must say that you have expensive tastes though, _please_ promise me that you'll never go shopping with my wife and daughters, I can't afford that sort of thing on a government salary!"

That brought a smile back to Sarah's face. "Oh it wasn't me who chose the dress sir, it was… the General's fashion consultant."

He turned his attention back to Diane. "Fashion consultant?"

"The daughter of a friend who's living in Los Angeles sir, La Ciudad's involvement made this an important operation, and as Agent Walker said the right image is everything with those people, so as Nora is part of that crowd I asked her to help ensure that Mister Bartowski and Agent Walker looked the part. I must admit that I almost fainted myself when I saw the bill, but as you said, they certainly looked like they were meant to be there."

He nodded at that, and wound up the meeting so that he could make arrangements to get in to see the President straight away to deal with the situation Graham had put them in.

When it was back to just them and the link was secure, Sarah smirked at the screen. "You know damned well that that dress can be repaired good as new, the only thing wrong with the necklace is a broken clasp and there's nothing at all wrong with Chuck's suit Auntie Di!"

"Yes, but you didn't think I was going to let that bastard get off Scot free after what he set up you and Chuck for, did you?"

Sarah shook her head with a smile.


	11. The Carmichaels

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Back in Langley, Graham was furious, because everything had been going to shit... ever since he suspended Larkin really. Obviously he'd had no idea just how much his staff had been compromised by Larkin, because it had to have been one of them who told him about the new Intersect facility. Then Larkin sends the Intersect to _Bartowski_ , who could actually use it! It was obvious now who it was who actually got that ninety eight percent result in the Subliminal Imaging tests at Stanford.

It got only worse after that because he'd been blind sided by that pint sized bitch Beckman, and she'd somehow played him, and apparently the DNI, to not only get sole control of the human intersect project but to get it taken outside of all the normal chains of command. On top of that, she'd also managed to take his best agent off of him, and he _needed_ Walker for when Frost came after him!

He knew from discussions with his people in the DEA and the FBI that Beckman had gotten Miller and Rizzo too, _and_ that the Director of the FBI had started an investigation into why Rizzo had generally been relegated to insignificant dead end operations since he disbanded the CAT Squad and she was sent back to the FBI. That was unfortunate, but hopefully the fact that it had been on his orders had been buried far enough to remain a secret. The plan had been to make sure he could find her when he was ready to use her, Miller too, but having the DEA keeping _her_ malleable by using her to soften up drug lords all the time had worked too.

That was what rankled the most, the fact that that bitch Beckman _almost_ had exactly what he'd had in mind for the Omaha project, to have the Human Intersect teamed up with the rest of the U.S. Intelligence communities' best agents to form the _ultimate_ team. The only thing that bitch was missing was the fact that the Human Intersect was meant to be an agent who was good enough to handle whatever was required of them, but _her's_ was a civilian, and a mewling mommy's boy at that! so she would never achieve what that team was destined to achieve with him.

This current business though, that just added to his problems. It was supposed to have been easy, give them just enough clues so that they'd look ridiculous when the Brits came in and solved it right under their noses. That would have given him and his supporters the ammunition they needed to argue that a civilian was obviously incapable of doing what was required of the Human Intersect and start the ball rolling to get that project disbanded and get Walker back where she was supposed to be. But that idiot Bartowski fluked it and came up with enough to move it forward. He'd thought that that could still work for him though, send Bartowski in there so that La Ciudad killed him like everyone else who'd gotten close to him and that would give them pretty much the same result. Yeah, they'd be without the Intersect Database until they rebuilt the Intersect computers, but America had survived for hundreds of years without the Intersect, a few more months wouldn't hurt.

But them having that run in with the Brit agents and those stupid Brits opening their big mouths had made it all blow up in his face, especially with everyone being so incensed about Walker getting handled like that, and then being forced to come clean about all the agreements he had been making like that, _that_ was going to hurt him! The cherry on top of the big steaming turd was the fact that after all that, they had somehow managed to capture La Ciudad, so Beckman came out of this looking good, damned good, while he was going to get his arse kicked.

* * *

A couple of days later, Diane filled them in on the outcome with the Brits and others. "The President agreed with the DNI and he has been formally revoking all the agreements Graham made, starting with the British SIS. The President received an almost immediate response from the British Prime Minister. The Chief of the SIS has also been called to account for every agreement that he's ever made with any foreign organisations and threatened with penalties up to and including prison if he tries to hide anything or make any further agreements without proper authorisation. The Prime Minister asked what the President was going to do about Director Graham, and he advised him that he would be imposing similar measures on Director Graham."

"Graham's losing a lot of his power with his foreign allies now because everyone knows that he's no longer able to follow through on most of the promises he makes, so he won't be able to get any favours from them. Needless to say, Director Graham won't not at all happy about any of this and unfortunately he still has enough support in our government to prevent him being dismissed, so we should expect him to try to get back at us, and Sarah will be his most obvious target, so we need to be careful….."

She stopped to think for a bit and and asked the others if she could have a private word with Chuck and Sarah. Once the others had left, she looked at them and said. "Chuck, Sarah, did you mean what you said in DC?"

"Yes Auntie Di, we both did, but we _didn't_ say that because you'd cleverly manoeuvred us into it like you thought, we want to be married because we don't want to be apart again!"

"I'm glad Honey, I truly am, but I still believe that you getting married would make Sarah safer."

Sarah looked at Chuck nodding resignedly with a smile. "So are we getting married?"

"Yeah. The day we marry will be one of the happiest days of my life! I just don't like the idea that we're having to do it to protect you from Graham and those other bastards."

"We _aren't_ Charlie! Like you said, we're doing this because we mean the world to each other and don't want to be apart, ever again."

He had a question in his eye as he looked at her, she smiled and nodded and he took her hands. "Samantha Lisa Blake, Sarah Lisa Walker, Caitlin O'Connell and any other name you choose to use, would you make me happy by agreeing to be my wife and spend the rest of our lives together, please?"

"Yes, Charles Philip Jaworski, Charles Irving Bartowski, Charles Philip Carmichael and whatever names you choose to use, I'd love to marry you and spend the rest of our lives together!"

Diane smiled with a tear in her eye and sent message to Mary, Emma and Ellie to go back to the meeting room. When they returned, Diane explained that they'd discussed marriage half jokingly before, but Chuck and Sarah now agreed that it was the best way to make Sarah safer, because as they'd covered previously, as a married woman, she would have legal grounds to refuse the sort of things that people like Graham and his ilk were likely to push at her, even if they did somehow manage to shut the project down.

Diane paused and Chuck turned to Emma "Auntie Em, do I have your blessing to marry your daughter?" Emma nodded with tears in her eyes. "Of course Chuck, I've been waiting for this day since you were children!"

Sarah turned to Mary with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "Auntie Mary, do I have your blessing to marry your son?" Mary laughed, but had tears in her eyes as well "What do you think? I've been waiting for the day that you officially become my daughter as well."

At that Sarah turned to Ellie "Ellie, are you OK with this?" Ellie just burst into tears "Are you kidding? I've thought of you as my sister since the day that you were born, so I've been waiting for this for all your life!" At that they were both crying in each other's arms.

Mary turned to her son with a smile. "Haven't you forgotten something Chuck? Someone else you're supposed to ask?" As Chuck went to answer, Diane put up the video of Chuck asking the question and Sarah's response. When it was done Mary laughed and said. "Okay, you didn't forget, but strictly speaking you should have asked Emma first."

Emma shut her up. "Oh stop it Mary, we're going to be the family we were always meant to be, but the girls, Vivien, Bry, Kim and the others _do_ need to be part of this too."

Sarah looked panicked at that. "Oh no! How could I forget about the girls? I _can't_ marry their father without their blessing!" With that, she took off out the door, with laughter wafting after her.

Chuck left soon after, to see his little sister, then Uncle Bry and Kim, Anna and Lou and then he was knocking on the door of Carina and Zondra's apartment (because they'd decided almost straight away that living there with everyone else was where they wanted to be). He was relieved to see that Carina wasn't showing much more than the other girls did when she opened the door in shorts and a tank top. She just pulled him inside, calling out "Zee!", because she had a good idea of what he was there for.

Unsurprisingly, the twins were the loudest and most excited after Ellie, but Carina and Zondra were remarkably demonstrative for spies when Chuck broached the matter with them. With the matter of Graham hanging over their heads, they decided to fly up to Vegas immediately for a quick wedding, then have a proper wedding with all the pomp and ceremony that everyone else was bound to demand when they could fit it into their cover story.

* * *

What names they could get legally married as was a question, but that was easily resolved because after Sarah left Harvard, Jane and some of the CIA techs had made sure that all the records were in place to make Sarah Lisa Walker her legal name, down to an officially certified birth certificate which she had collected from Jane's when they were in DC. Chuck's earlier degrees from Caltech and MIT were all in the name of Charles Carmichael and he'd never liked the stupid name Charles Irving Bartowski anyway, so he had done pretty much the same thing to legally become Charles Philip Carmichael when Uncle Roan asked him what name he wanted his degrees from Stanford to be issued as. The fact that all of their degrees were in those names was just icing on the cake.

It didn't take too long to work out that they'd need both planes to get everyone to Las Vegas, and even then some would have to miss out, so Casey called the airport to get both of their planes readied for a flight and organise the flight plans while Diane organised to have the paperwork they'd need for the wedding ready for them when they got there.

With all the resources at their disposal, Chuck and Sarah were married and back in LA within four hours of deciding to do so, and Chuck slipped the references to their official marriage records into Sarah's CIA files, so the CIA couldn't say that they had no knowledge of it. He actually enjoyed the challenge of turning off the alerts on access to her files (Graham's, obviously), making all the changes he wanted and turning the alerts back on without triggering anything.

Graham would be furious when he tried to access the evidence he had been keeping to use against Sarah, because unless he'd kept copies of it off-line, it was all gone! The only things left were the dates she joined and was made an agent, her records from training and the farm (except for that disgusting 'special' training, the only record left of that was the names and faces in his head and Sarah's, and they _would_ be tracking those bastards down and dealing with them!), and the records of her missions and the outcomes (and anyone left alive from those first two solo missions would be dealt with as well). All that showed in the CIA systems for Agent Sarah Walker now were the stats and commendations of their top agent, everything else had been scrubbed completely clean.

Sarah had cried when they discussed what he'd found, but she'd felt cleaner after she got that off her chest, so she asked him to do the same for Carina, because there was far more filth about her in the DEA _and_ CIA systems than there had been about Sarah. It took him a while, but by the time he was done, Carina's records and files were like Sarah's, they just showed what an exceptional agent she was and what she'd achieved, the evidence of all the shit she'd been forced to do was completely scrubbed from the systems.

He also checked Zondra's records, but aside from the terrible events that brought her to the FBI in the first place, there was nothing disturbing in her records, and that wasn't anything that could be used against her, so as she was OK with it he left it there.

* * *

A week or so after they were married, Sarah got her apology from the British Consul-General in Los Angeles, but it was forced and fell far short of what could have been considered a genuine apology, and as she was turning away she heard him mutter. "It's a damned disgrace! Being forced to _apologise_ to the bitch who _murdered_ our people!" so she turned back and stepped close, speaking too quietly for anyone else to hear.

"Listen you ignorant bastard! No-one was _murdered_ , two of your perverts were shot when _they_ tried to shoot my partner after the _third_ time he'd identified himself as a Federal agent! _I_ killed the third one! Not because he was mauling my breasts so hard that they're still bruised though, it was more to try and help save my partner! So I'd be happy if all you sick bastards would get the hell out of our country! You just better hope that I never find you away from your guards, but even _that_ wouldn't be murder, it would be a mercy killing because you're obviously too stupid to live!" With that she nodded politely to him and turned to gracefully walk away, the very epitome of elegance, while the Consul-General hurriedly shuffled away from the puddle he'd left on the floor.

They got a message from Auntie Di when they got back to El Castillo to say that they'd had a shotgun mic trained on her at the affair and while the DNI would officially be very disappointed with her if it ever got out, he wanted her to know that he hadn't laughed that hard in years, especially when the bastard wet himself. She added that they'd be keeping all the recordings in case the Consul-General was stupid enough to try and lodge a complaint.

* * *

With the way that Graham was losing his allies overseas hand over fist, he was desperate to shore up his domestic alliances, so when the opportunity presented itself to mount a joint operation with his old friend the Administrator of the DEA, he jumped at the chance. Of course, neither of them wanted to take the risk of going up against terrorists with anyone who could be associated with them, and they'd lost their best agents to this Human Intersect Project anyway, so the Administrator quickly agreed to Graham's reasoning to have the Intersect Project do their dirty work for them.

That was why they were engaged for another urgent mission by the CIA and DEA soon after they got back from the wedding in Las Vegas. On the face of it they at least had the relevant information this time. Peyman Alahi, a drug transporter, was holding a fabulous diamond, the Nadan-I-Noor, to use to pay for missile purchases for terrorists, so the purpose of this mission was to take that diamond from him to prevent those missile purchases.

The DEA Administrator wasn't at all impressed when he tried to tell Carina that she was to go in and do whatever it took to seduce Alahi and get the diamond but Diane abruptly told him that he couldn't give her team orders _or_ dictate how they would carry out their operation! As per the terms and conditions laid out, he could _only_ specify the target of the operation. He was even more furious when his attempt to intimidate her with threats of dire consequences if her methods didn't get the diamond had no effect on her at all. Graham had tried to stop him, because for all he wanted to shoot the little bitch in the face, she was as much of a Pit Bull as Casey and he had to respect her for that.

While Chuck and Anna were getting into the systems to get the plans and details of the security systems, the rest of them were organising the team for the incursion. Chuck, Sarah and Carina would be the ones going in openly, with Casey on-site as their driver, while the rest of them would be waiting just off-site to come in.

Their entry into Alahi's compound was easy enough, as the pervert had a perpetual pool party going because he tried to surround himself with women wearing as little as possible. While they were doing this, part of the Thebes Security team were getting into the property via the path down to the beach so that they could be on hand quickly if things went south. Chuck, Sarah and Carina circulated until they were in a position to slip away without being seen, and then they headed for where they expected the diamond to be, confirming that the team were in place before they went inside.

Chuck had no trouble circumventing the security system to get into the mansion, but the diamond was in a sealed display room, which almost certainly had silent alarms. They didn't have the time or equipment to properly disable all the security systems, so they agreed that they would have to snatch it and run.

He got them into the room, but then they ran into another complication, as the intersect then showed that part of the security on the diamond included pumping enough electricity through the cradle holding the stone to fry anyone who touched the stone. He was trying solve that problem when they heard a round being chambered behind them. The girls kicked themselves at that, because _they_ were the ones who were supposed to be keeping watch while Chuck got them past the security, but they'd been trying to think of a way to grab the diamond before they were caught there.

When they turned to face the people behind them though, they were met by a sickening sight, because Alahi was standing there in all his glory with two guards, and he was a fugly little toad covered in little more than his own fur.

Sarah and Carina dropped into their ever reliable ditzy valley girl personas which disarmed most men while giving them hope that they'd get lucky. Alahi trying to be smooth as he devoured them with his eyes, saying "So you like my diamond?" played right into their hands, so Sarah came right back with a ditzy "Oh, yeah, it's _really_ pretty!"

He came forward so he could touch them, confident that his guards would stop the man doing anything when he did so, saying "You're not supposed to be here!" as if he were chiding a child, so she responded "Oh, I'm really sorry, but the door was unlocked, and who are you?"

He all but licked his lips as he leered at her "Pretty girls call me Peyman." Carina jumped in then "Hi Peyman, this is Sarah, I'm Carina, and this is our brother Chuckie" as she stepped up to Chuck to put her arm around him. Alahi thought he was on a sure thing now and turned to dismiss his guards, just as Carina's hand came back, holding the Russian OTs-38 Stechkin silent revolver that Chuck had had tucked into the waistband of his trousers. She took out the two guards with head shots and the valley girl was gone as she finished with. "And this is my little friend!"

Glancing from the pistol to Chuck she grinned, saying "I like it Chuckie!" He smiled, turning to Sarah who had Alahi on his knees, twisting the hand he'd grabbed her on the arse with up behind his back. Chuck met her eye and she nodded, because he had to keep up the civilian or at least analyst act, and she asked. "How do we turn off the security system?"

The idiot still thought that he was in control of the situation. He was expecting his guards to arrive at any minute so he was actually trying to get a better look down her dress as he leered up at her and said "You'll need the key card to do that….. but you'll have to search me to find it." That got his arm wrenched hard enough to result in a loud ' _snap_ ' as Sarah said "Oopsies" in her valley girl voice before knocking him out to prevent his screams bringing the anyone else. They called for someone to come and collect Alahi, binding and gagging him with what they could find, while Chuck was trying to work out how to get the diamond without being electrocuted.

Eventually he spied the fire extinguisher and told Carina to grab it, and as soon as the men had taken Alahi out, she fired a blast of CO2 at the diamond, blowing it off the pedestal for Chuck to catch. He got a bit of a shock from the residual electricity, but managed to hold onto it. The problem then was that as well as the alarm going off, the door started coming down and gas was released into the room, apparently they were serious about preventing the diamond from being stolen.

Chuck gave Sarah a shove that took her out of the room before the door got that far down and Carina kicked over a pedestal holding a bust over to stop the door a bit over a foot off the floor, then showed that she must have been a tomboy at one point as she slid under the door in a perfect little league slide. Chuck followed her, just scraping through but he made it. Once outside, they hoofed it with their people who'd taken out the guards who'd come running at the alarm.

As she couldn't run in those heels, Chuck scooped up Sarah while one of the other guys did the same with Carina and they took off down the path to the beach to pile into the waiting vans and Continental convertible. With electric motors in each wheel, adjustable suspension and extendible paddles in the tweels, the lightweight machines had no trouble charging across the sand, and once they were on the road with the paddles retracted and their suspensions lowered, they proved themselves just as capable on-road as off. The Continental and one of the vans split off in Santa Monica to head back to El Castillo while the other van delivered Alahi and the diamond to trusted FBI Agents on the C-21A that Diane had waiting at LAX.

* * *

As soon as they got back to El Castillo they reported in about the mission, and they had a good idea from Diane's smile what she was up to, considering what they'd discovered when they were researching this. Once Graham and the Administrator of the DEA had been linked in, Diane informed them that the diamond had been recovered, so the terrorists wouldn't get their missiles, she also informed them that Peyman Alahi had been captured and would be delivered to the DEA. The Administrator was looking rather pleased with the way that this had gone and asked when he was getting the diamond. At that, Diane had to hide a smile. "On that... I'm afraid that you will not be getting the diamond Administrator, as the President has ordered that the Nadan-I-Noor be returned to its rightful owners to shore up our relations with India, so the State Department will be taking delivery of the diamond to hand it over to the Indian government in a formal ceremony. We realise that this means that we have not quite achieved the outcome you were expecting here Administrator, so the DNI has agreed to write off the cost of this operation, and Peyman Alahi is in effect your compensation for that."

The two men were enraged by this, Graham especially as he realised that he'd been outmanoeuvred _again_ by that bitch, but as the DNI had so pointedly reminded him, a Presidential order was something you couldn't fight against, so there was nothing that they could do about it now. Of course, the fact that he'd sold the Administrator on using the Human Intersect team as the best way for them to get the diamond at minimal risk to themselves meant that he'd shot himself in the foot, because he'd convinced the Administrator to stick his neck out on this with the promise of a fabulous diamond that would make them rich, but all he'd gotten out of the exercise was a filthy little toad like Alahi, while Beckman taunted them with the Nadan-I-Noor and gave it away.

This made it at least four, no five...six… _seven_ nil to Beckman! First he'd lost the Human Intersect Project and Walker to her, then he'd lost one of the best agents he had left and got a pile of shit from that debacle at the Intersect facility, she'd captured La Ciudad _and_ lost him all of his overseas support in that affair with the Brits, and now she'd earned major brownie points with the President by capturing the diamond _and_ probably cost him the Administrator's support….

Maybe it would be smarter to just bide his time and wait for her pathetic civilian Intersect to screw up as he knew he would, because every time he'd gone up against Beckman so far, it had cost him, and he couldn't afford to lose too much more until he'd strengthened his position…. as she had hurt him more than anyone else he'd gone up against. He was starting to think that he'd been focussing on the wrong Pit Bull, Casey was dangerous alright, but not as dangerous as the bitch he reported to.

* * *

While Carina and Zondra hadn't planned on staying at El Castillo any longer than it took them to find places that suited their style, they found that they quite enjoyed sharing an apartment, and the apartment they were in _was_ quite comfortable and stylish. The convenience of living little more than a hundred yards from both of their 'work's made life a lot easier, and more to the point, they found that they _really_ liked living in the heart of their 'family', so that they could see any of them whenever they wanted. It had only taken them a matter of days to decide to keep things the way they were.

They did have to settle into their cover jobs, but that wasn't difficult either because in many ways this was the perfect cover for what they did, a cover paramilitary security company that was well armed to protect celebrities and corporate assets. Most of the ones who had come across had been working for the supposed parent company in Texas and its other franchises (which were all owned by their 'friends'), so they had experience in corporate security at least. Those few who hadn't been working in the security field were, like Carina and Zondra, quite capable of picking up what they needed for the 'job' due to their operative backgrounds.

Thebes Security was working out of the Shiloh Storage space while the bunker and their offices were being built. The Intersect team's bunker was already in place, the exterior finished and all the major structural work was done, now they just had to fit it out, which shouldn't take anywhere near as long as creating the bunker had.

Casey was still arguing about staff though, at least he was with the young lady who was determined to become his receptionist and assistant. Alexandra McHugh was just as stubborn as her father was, so those discussions were occasions to break out the popcorn and watch for the rest of them.

John had taught Alex many things and supported her when she wanted to study criminal psychology at university, but they went head to head when she argued that the business needed believable assistants to look legitimate and it would be the perfect part time job for her, and that was ever so entertaining to watch for everyone else.

None of them were surprised when Alex got her way, because while she may have been over a foot shorter than Casey and half his weight, she could whip her father any day of the week. Most of the time she didn't even have to break out the plaintive "Dad?" that could make him crack in five seconds flat. She was a good girl though, she didn't gloat... much.

* * *

With all the effort required to get the Intersect team and Thebes Security established, they'd been dropping the ball with their business clients though, so when they came to a slow spell in the 'spy business', they all pitched in to make a push to catch up on that side of things. That was how they ended up working late one night, and as everyone was in the mood for Chinese, Chuck and Sarah did a food run. As cliché as it was, just about all of Chuck's favourite Chinese restaurants actually were _in_ Chinatown so they headed down there, the drive also gave them time to talk about the proposal that Auntie Di had made about changing their cover.

The purpose of Auntie Di's proposal was to shore up the move they'd made in getting married by creating the scenario where Piranha Security & Technology, Lotus Security Systems, Novatech Industries and Shiloh Security Storage had all just been bought out and became part of Carmichael Industries, which would have Charles and Sarah Carmichael running the business and becoming prominent in society circles. Having them well known as a successful married couple would seriously erode Sarah's ability to operate in other capacities, while further establishing their cover. The timing could be easily explained as being part of setting up the covers for the Human Intersect team, and the fact that Chuck's degrees from Stanford, MIT and Caltech were all in the name of Charles Carmichael also supported this move.

The other part of Auntie Di's proposal was more ambitious though, because she wanted to make Charlemagne Computers Etc disappear completely. Charlemagne was generally just an on-site tech services provider, so very few people had ever come to the office, which had made it easy to move the Charlemagne office down to the other end of the block with the Thebes offices and pretend that it had always been there. The thing was, none of them had ever liked the basic tech services work that was Charlemagne's bread and butter, that had been forced on them by the Cover Bureau as someone there had decided that that would be more _believable_ than the work they were best at. So what Auntie Di was proposing now was that they get rid of the business by simply blowing the building occupied by it and Thebes Security up!

After the explosion, the police and community would be told by FBI agents that a new gang had been trying to move into the area, and they had apparently decided that blowing up the building was what they needed to send a 'Don't fuck with us!' message, they would also be told that the people who had worked for Charlemagne Computers Etc had been put into the witness protection scheme.

The CIA and NSA on the other hand would be told that the evidence was that the location had been leaked by a turned agent, and Fulcrum were the ones responsible for the explosion, presumably trying to wipe out part, if not all of the team and perhaps the bunker before it was secure. However, the bunker had in fact survived largely intact, as had one or two of the access tunnels, so once it was repaired and blocked off from the Thebes Security offices, the tunnels could be used to access it.

They would _also_ be told that the organisation which had recently bought the building next door had bought the property that the Thebes Security building was on to extend their building to cover the entire block (the argument for this was that they had to do major work to repair the structural damage to that end of the building from the explosion, so it wouldn't be that much more work to extend the building and gain a third more space, and what's more, they could get the insurance company to pay part of the costs that way). They had agreed to the government's stipulation to ask no questions about what was underneath the Thebes offices to prevent their building expansion being stopped, so the Human Intersect Project's operations centre could remain where it was, and be accessed via the tunnels until the building had been repaired and expanded. After that, the only difference from their previous plans would be that the Thebes offices were occupying one corner of the ground floor of a much larger building rather than their own building.

Neither of them could see much to argue about with this proposal, because for the most part it was exactly what they and the rest of the family wanted. Sarah had a pretty good idea of why Auntie Di wanted to expand the building for from what Mama had told her about Auntie Di's plans for them, obviously she was planning on bringing a lot more of their people in so that they could work together more efficiently.

While Chuck didn't know about that, he _did_ know that Auntie Di was pushing hard to get promotions and medals processed for Sarah's military IDs, especially her Army Sarah Walker ID. When Sarah's military identities were created back around Mid-Ninety Eight, they'd all been made about thirteen or fourteen years older than she was, because they'd started her at O-2 or O-3 with about ten or eleven years service and a few years time in grade, so that she had moved up to O-3 or O-4 level by the time she went into the advanced flight training etc in 1999. By the time she became a agent in 2002 she was at O-4 across the board, but the CIA hadn't bothered updating her military IDs since then.

Many of the special operations missions she'd been doing with the military since Ninety Nine could be easily mapped to her military IDs and there had been recommendations for medals for her from more than a few of those operations, so Auntie Di had been using the records he took from the CIA's systems before he sanitised them to get promotions and medals signed off by the big brass for her, getting them backdated as far as possible so that Sarah was now at O-5 level for the Air Force, Navy and Marines, but she was an Army Colonel. He smiled as he thought about how she was going to react when she found out that her aunt had _also_ been establishing her as Shanti, saying that she hadn't been commonly known by that name because she'd only used it when she was operating with the rest of the team.

Auntie Di obviously had big plans for Sarah, just like she did for him and Ellie.


	12. Here Be Dragons

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, this isn't the real world and it's not a Disney Princess** **tale** **.**

When they reached the Bamboo Dragon, an old favourite of Chuck's from when he was a teenager, they ordered the food for the horde back at the office and stood out the front of the restaurant, talking as they waited. One time Chuck glanced up though, he flashed on the tattoo in the inside of the forearm of one of the waitresses. Sarah felt him stiffen and snuggled into him, stretching up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek and whisper "Did you flash?" He put his arm around her and bent down to kiss her on the other cheek to give her a clear line of sight. "Yes, the waitress at table twelve? She's Mei-Ling Cho, China's top operative, she's never been on U.S. soil before."

Sarah managed to make her gasp at that seem as though it was because of the way he was kissing his way up her jaw line and whispered. "Are you sure?"

"The Intersect is!"

"Shit!"

She jumped, stepping back to get her phone from her pocket as if it had just rung on vibrate and called Casey on speed dial. As she brought the phone to her face she said "Da Dyadya Alexei?" as if she was answering a call before entering into a few bursts of rapidfire Russian in a whining tone, glancing at Chuck and turning away to whisper the woman's name as if she were hiding something from him. When she'd hung up, looking upset, he asked what that was about? "Uncle Alexei is getting impatient for his food, and he won't accept that the delay isn't my fault!"

He put his arms around her and kissed her on the cheek to comfort her, whispering in her ear "You really are incredible, you know?" She kissed him on the cheek and responded "Why thank you, but I do have to be to keep up with my husband! Casey said to try to keep an eye on her and he'll be here as soon as possible."

He nodded "It was evil to use Russian though." She gave him an innocent look at that "What? I had to use a language that most people wouldn't understand!" but gave herself away with the grin she finished with. He just grinned and kissed her again.

When they got their food, Chuck used his phone to bring the van up remotely so that they could sit in it and cover the Bamboo Dragon with its cameras, continuing the discussion about Auntie Di's plans and eating while they were watching multiple windows on the smart glass screen across the inside of the windscreen. One thing they weren't sure about was the caveat that had been made that Roan wanted to create the offices and penthouse for the Carmichaels that would 'create the image of who they were', because while Chuck loved Roan as the supportive Uncle he'd been to him ever since he was ten, he was under no delusions about the incorrigible lethario's character. Knowing his Uncle Roan as he did, he envisioned a totally decadent pleasure palace that would project an image that Chuck didn't think either of them wanted to be associated with.

It took over half an hour for Casey to turn up, which surprised them until he handed Chuck the thumb drive with everything they had on file for Mei-Ling Cho to plug into the on board computer. Sarah was getting more and more pissed off as they went through the reports on the very impressive Lieutenant Colonel Cho though, because she now knew how Chuck had known that she was China's top operative, and it _wasn't_ from the Intersect! Eventually she spat out.

"Every one of these reports was written by Charles Carmichael, Philip Smith, Karol Zaleski, Eleanore Charlemagne, Nora Jones, Eleanora Zaleska, Emmeline Boudreaux, Emma Burdon, Lisa Black, Marie Lestrange, Maryam Krieger or Elizabeth White!"

"Yes?"

"They're _all_ you, Ellie, Mama and Auntie Mary! Didn't you think it relevant to share that you guys are apparently the resident authorities on this agent?"

"Not really, no."

Her voice was dangerously low as she asked. "Why not?"

"Because nothing that we know about her from our research or the Intersect gives us any indication of what the hell she's doing here! I'm flying blind and I don't like it!"

At that point, Casey spoke up from the rear. "Enough with the domestics! She's leaving!"

When they looked back at the screen, sure enough she was hurrying in bike gear around the corner from the kitchen entrance out back, which served as the employees' entrance. There was also a stretch limousine pulling away from the front of the Bamboo Dragon so Chuck asked. "Did you see who's in that limo John?"

"Ben Lo Pan, he owns half of Chinatown and he's believed to be big in the triads too." Just then Mei-Ling reappeared on a sports bike and started following the limo.

Chuck mused, "Well it looks like he's the one she's after" as he shut down the computer displays and pulled out to follow them, having an electric vehicle which could take off instantly was handy.

* * *

The limo pulled up at another building in Chinatown and they hung back as Mei-Ling put her bike out sight around the corner from the limo, using the zoom lenses and wide spectrum imaging of the van's cameras to see what she was doing as she popped the compartment behind the seat open and extracted a couple of pistols. Casey made a crack about 'crotch rocket and Glocks, my kinda gal', but Chuck corrected him distractedly. "Those aren't Glocks John, they're Chinese military issue QSW Oh Sixes, and that's a worry because those particular pistols are normally used by their agents for sanctioned assassinations."

As they watched her climb the drainpipe to the roof of the building that Lo Pan had gone into, Sarah and Casey reluctantly agreed that it was their duty to stop the assassination of a prominent foreign national on U.S. soil. It rankled when they told that he couldn't be seen to be part of this so he had to stay in the van, but when Sarah got upset at his reaction he kissed her and told it was OK and to go.

Sarah and Casey didn't have any trouble dealing with guard outside the private club in the building, but when Sarah saw Mei-Ling with her pistols in hand and called out "Gun!" Lo Pan's guards started shooting at her and Casey! While most of the guards were shooting it out with Sarah, Casey and Mei-Ling, a small group got Lo Pan out of the club and the building.

When the doors burst open and they hustled Lo Pan out of the building, Chuck swore, grabbing his Glock 20 with a couple of extra mags and jumped out to run through the shadows towards them. He was almost up to the building when the doors burst open again and two more guards came out, supporting a third man who was bound and hooded between them. Chuck had to slow to a fast meander as he came into the light, but they took no notice of him as they threw the man into the trunk and jumped in as the limo took off.

Chuck broke into a run, drawing the 20 as he did so, but shooting at any viable target from this angle would have endangered the man in the trunk, so he swore and grabbed one of the other mags from his back pocket. He released the mag in the pistol, catching it as it fell, ramming home the other mag and pulling back the slide to eject the round in the chamber and load the first round from the new mag in one continuous movement. He stopped to carefully take aim, firing a subsonic tracker round into the safest part of the bodywork he had a clear shot at before quickly tucking the pistol into the back of his jeans and bending down to pick up and pocket the round he'd ejected, just before Mei-Ling burst out of the building with her pistols extended at the rapidly departing limo.

* * *

When Chuck shouted "Don't shoot!" before she could fire, she turned the pistols on him "Where did they take him?"

"Who?"

"My brother! Where did they take him?"

Playing a confused civilian seemed the safest course when faced with an aggravated assassin pointing two pistols at him, so Chuck said. "He must have been that guy they threw in the trunk, that was why I tried to stop you shooting at the car, I don't know who they were or where they went, I was just passing and saw them throwing a guy in the trunk and ran up here to try and stop them."

She was starting to calm down a little when Sarah and Casey came barrelling out of the doors and freaked when they saw Chuck with two pistols pointing at his face, shouting "Federal agents, drop your weapons!" and aiming their pistols at Mei-Ling.

Mei-Ling couldn't understand the frustrated sigh that the man in front of her gave at that, but she saw all the signs of fear suddenly disappear as he said in flawless Chinese. " _Lieutenant Colonel Cho, you cannot help your brother by getting yourself killed, and I can assure you that_ _ **will**_ _happen if you harm any of us. I do not want to see you dead, and I definitely do not want my companions harmed, as they mean a_ _great deal_ _to me. Please, if you lower your weapons, I promise_ _you_ _that we will help you find your brother, I fired a tracker into the car_ _just before you came out_ _so we will be able to follow them."_

She just stared at him, she couldn't understand any of this, the way he was looking down the barrels of her pistols without showing a shred of fear, the fact that he knew precisely who she was _or_ how he spoke to her in such fluent Chinese. He was making sense though, because now she could see them she recognised the two agents behind him, there was absolutely no way she could take on both of them and she would need help if she was to locate and rescue Li-Wei, so she lowered her pistols.

He nodded thanks when she did so and held out his hand, speaking again, still in Chinese " _It will help diffuse the_ _tension_ _if you hand over your weapons, they will be returned to you later."_ She glanced at the other two and did as he asked. He bowed to her and turned to show the pistols to the others. They lowered their pistols but Sarah's anger was obvious as she gave Chuck a 'this isn't over!' look and Mei-Ling murmured. "She is not happy with you!"

He shook his head in sorrow. "No, she is not!"

* * *

They quickly manhandled Mei-Ling's bike into the back of the van and headed for the apartments in Echo Park. They slipped into the one furthest away from Skip and Jethro's apartment that they kept free for this sort of thing and Chuck fired up the computer there, getting to work while Mei-Ling told her story.

He appeared totally engrossed in what he was doing, but often asked for clarification on points of what she was saying, so he was certainly paying attention. She observed him as she was talking, trying to reconcile the fact that he was obviously the one in charge, even though these other two were both known as being among the best spies in the world. She was also observing the woman, Agent Sarah Walker, whom she knew to be one of the most formidable spies in the western world, if not the whole world, because she was obviously totally in love with this man.

After about fifteen to twenty minutes of this Chuck suddenly swore, hitting the desk hard enough for it to make a cracking noise, and stood up and stalked off. Mei-Ling saw Agent Walker look after him in concern, but they went to the computer to see what had angered him. What she saw up on the screens astounded Mei-Ling, because he'd somehow gotten into some of the Chinese government's most secure computer systems to extract everything about her, Li-Wei and his kidnapping. It also had the triad's demands to exchange Li-Wei for a senior triad captain and the government's refusal of their demand, but she couldn't see what had angered this…. Chuck so much until Agent Walker tapped on one screen. "This, this is what upset him."

Mei-Ling took note of the fact that this small group obviously had two people who were capable of reading Chinese reasonably, or more likely very, well. Which again brought up her earlier thought, just what was a group with two, no, three, because Major John Casey was spy of considerable repute around the world as well, people of such calibre doing buried away here in Los Angeles? But even though Agent Walker had pointed it out, Mei-Ling couldn't understand what there was about that document that upset him so, it was just the official notice that she had gone against her orders and was therefore officially disavowed by the People's Republic, it was essentially her death warrant but she knew that this would happen when she came after Li. It was a price she was willing to pay to get her little brother back to his family.

She turned a confused look at Agent Walker, but while the woman was talking to her, she was still looking after her man in concern. "Family and what's right is everything to Chuck, and to him sanctioning you for trying to save your brother because they just wrote him off is very, very wrong."

Mei-Ling looked at John Casey for an explanation but he shook his head, indicating that he couldn't explain it, it was just the way the man was.

Chuck came back with a glass in one hand, and a bottle in the other. The bottle was over a third empty and the look John Casey gave it said that it had been unopened prior to this. Chuck started speaking as he returned "We have two problems that we need to address. The first, obviously, is how to rescue your brother, hopefully unharmed, and the other is how to safely return him to the People's Republic. From that…." pointing to her death warrant "You can't return him, as that would most probably get both of you killed. The safest bet would be to get our State Department people to return him, but they will undoubtedly demand a price for their assistance, and that price will most probably be you, or at least what you know."

"No! I will not betray my country, I could never return if I did that!"

"I'm sorry to say this Colonel, but that..." Pointing to the document that amounted to her death warrant again "Says that you could never return anyway. I am sure that you know many things that you could share which would not cause any significant harm to the People's Republic?"

He waited for her reluctant nod and then went on. "Then you can use _those_ things to pay your way and we will do our best to get you put into the government's witness protection scheme afterwards."

John Casey snorted at that and Mei-Ling looked at him with a question in her eyes, his response was. "Let's just say that this isn't the first time he's engineered this type of thing, so when _he_ says 'we will do our best', it's pretty much a guarantee that it will be done."

She turned back to Chuck. "Very well, I will do this."

He nodded. "Okay, let's get your brother back then!"

The tracker confirmed that the limo had gone to Lo Pan's mansion and that it was still there. Chuck collected what information he could find about the security systems and force in Lo Pan's mansion and they put together a plan for Casey, Sarah and Mei-Ling to go in, attaching remote access devices to the security and computer networks so that he could get control of them. While he was doing this, he surreptitiously sent a message to El Castillo to bring in the full Thebes Security crew for backup. They'd do this with just Casey, Sarah and Mei-Ling as they'd agreed if they could, but the second anything went wrong he was sending the full team in, he wasn't going to risk Sarah, or any of them.

Sarah came over to wrap her arms around his shoulders as he explained a few things, and when Mei-Ling was out of line of sight he brought up the window with the message for her to see. He closed the window when she nodded to say that she'd read it and kissed him on the cheek.

* * *

When the team sent him a message to say that their eta at Lo Pan's was about ten minutes before they could get there, they left the apartment and headed there themselves, with Chuck driving the van slowly down the street for them to jump out on the move before parking out of sight to get into the systems once they enabled his access. It went to plan initially, as soon as they got him into the security systems, he took them over, turning off alarms, unlocking doors and directing them to the guards so that they could take them out quietly. As he was doing this, he was also hacking into the computer systems and copying everything off them he could. Then the house camera feeds suddenly cut out and Casey and Sarah's cameras showed them being taken, so he sent the rest of the team in.

He saw the team going in over the fence, but was sure that no-one else would have. They went through the house like silent death, taking out the guards with suppressed weapons, knives or their bare hands. When they reached the room where Lo Pan was cackling about his brilliant plan though, Chuck ordered them to hold off until Lo Pan had told them his plan, unless there was any indication of any action against Sarah, Casey, Mei-Ling or Li-Wei, in which case of course they were to take out everyone else in the room. As soon as Lo Pan told the guards to get rid of them Chuck gave the team the go order, and all of Lo Pan's guards were down in seconds. Chuck thanked them and asked them to deliver Lo Pan to the FBI office and tell the FBI that the A/V and computer evidence would be sent to them.

* * *

When Sarah and the others came out, Chuck was waiting in the van for them and Mei-Ling just smiled when Sarah went straight up to kiss him. Normally she would have been angry to be out of the loop that much in an operation, but given the fact that she would have lost Li and they would have probably all died without his backup plan, she could hardly complain. In the van on the way back to Echo Park, Mei-Ling told her "Your man, he is exceptional" and Sarah just nodded happily. "I know!"

At Echo Park, Casey took Li-Wei to another room while they contacted Diane to have her make the necessary arrangements with the State Department to deliver Li-Wei to the Chinese Consulate, in return for Lieutenant Colonel Cho's information. Sarah noted the way that Mei-Ling was staring at Chuck right through this and wasn't happy about it. She was even less happy when Mei-Ling asked to talk privately with him after they cut the link, so it took Chuck ten minutes to convince her that he'd be OK, and that they'd leave the door part way open so that he could call for help if he needed to. When she finally agreed with great reluctance, Chuck directed Mei-Ling to the spare bedroom where they could talk.

Mei-Ling looked at the partly open door and quietly asked. "Do they know that you're Captain Carmichael, and Major Smith and almost certainly at least six or seven other senior intelligence officers as well?" Chuck looked at her for about a minute before he said. "I do not know what you are talking about Colonel Cho."

The look she gave him said that she _knew_ that he was the people she'd named without any doubt, so he shook his head. "Yes they do, but we'd prefer to keep that very quiet, how did you know?"

"At first I didn't, I just thought you were someone exceptional, but as I watched you work I started recognising the patterns that I've observed from studying your work the last thirteen years or more. You have quite a following in China you know, people like myself who follow your achievements, because even though you are not at all popular with our superiors because of the way you've thwarted the People's Republic so often, many appreciate and respect your brilliance."

"What do you intend to do with this knowledge Colonel Cho?"

"Nothing, Cap…." Chuck held up his hand "Chuck, please" She nodded "Nothing Chuck, I am in your debt, you and your people's, for saving my brother. I know that you understand my culture well enough to know that this is a life debt, I would never do anything against you or your people and whatever you need of me, you have but to ask and I will deliver it to the best of my ability."

He looked at her musingly. "Would that commitment extend to your working with us?"

She shook her head. "There is no way that your government would ever trust a defector being anywhere near someone as important as you…. Chuck."

"You'd be surprised what we can arrange, the question remains, would you be prepared to work with us _if_ it could be arranged?"

She smiled at him, she was beginning to see how Agent Walker could be so in love with him and so infuriated with him at the same time. "I do not believe that this is possible, but yes, if it could be arranged, it would be my honour to work with you, Chuck."

He nodded and politely signalled her to follow him out of the room (as it wasn't likely to be healthy for her to come out until he was seen to be safe), stopping down the hall where Sarah was standing with a VAL, ready to come in firing if anything happened. He filled her in on everything they'd discussed, and while initially hesitant she agreed that Mei-Ling would certainly be a great addition to the team. Back in the lounge room they asked Li-Wei if he'd wait in the other room with Major Casey again while they contacted their superiors and at Mei-Ling's reassuring nod he went with Casey.

Diane looked suspicious when Chuck called again to tell her that some of the arrangements that she was making would have to be changed. When he explained what he was after she was adamant that there was no way that that could ever be approved and Mei-Ling slumped in resignation, convinced that it was as she'd expected, but she jumped when Sarah reached over to squeeze her hand. When she looked at her, Sarah smiled reassuringly and shook her head. Mei-Ling smiled hesitantly when she got the message, 'don't give up yet!'

Mei-Ling was surprised when Chuck and the General's discussion changed to a excited torrent of Russian that she couldn't follow, no more than a word here or there anyway. In the end, the General looked at Sarah, and while she looked unhappy at her agreeing with this, she shocked Mei-Ling when she smiled fondly at Chuck and said. "You'll be the death of me yet Honey, put the case together and send it through, I'll present it to them. In the meantime I'll change the other arrangements as you've….. requested."

Chuck smiled at the screen. "Thanks Auntie Di!"

* * *

She shook her head at him and asked. "Have you thought about my proposal yet?"

Chuck looked at Sarah and she nodded happily, his smile for her stayed on his face as he turned back to the screen. "Yes Auntie Di, we'd like that, we're just a bit worried about what type of things Uncle Roan may have planned…."

She shook her head again. "Oh Honey, you know that he loves you and he'd never do anything to embarrass either of you, but if it makes you feel any better I'll make sure I look over all the plans and have final sign-off of everything to make sure that he doesn't do anything you won't like, will that work for you? Both of you?"

Chuck and Sarah looked at each other again and nodded with a smile, so Chuck answered. "Yes Auntie Di, that would make us a lot more comfortable, thank you."

She nodded. "OK, I'll contact the State Department, FBI and US Marshals to make these changes to the arrangements for Ms Cho, we'll let you know when and where to deliver Mister Cho in the morning for State Department to escort him to the Chinese Consulate. By the way, the Bob has asked me to pass on the FBI's thanks for Lo Pan and the evidence you supplied with him. Night Honey." With that she cut the link.

Chuck turned to Mei-Ling, who was looking stunned. "I expect that you didn't get all of that?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, you'll be taken to Washington D C by the FBI and remain in their custody, under General Beckman's orders, until you finish making your depositions. If State or anyone else tries to go off script, expand those sessions or take you away, General Beckman will order them finished and you'll leave in the custody of her people. Once we get everything signed off by the relevant authorities, you'll come back here and work with us, under a different name of course, is that okay with you?"

She nodded, "Yes, but might I ask what that last part was about?"

Sarah stepped in to answer that. "Chuck and I are married, legally, but not openly. I don't know how Chinese Intelligence expects its female operatives to operate, but some individuals in the American Intelligence community expect female agents to do things that I am no longer prepared to do, and _always_ found utterly repulsive. What the General has proposed is that our cover identities be changed to that of a high profile married couple, so that I couldn't do those types of missions without compromising our established cover, and our team is too important for that to be allowed. Someone else who is part of our extended family has asked to be given leave to create our business and residential presences to present the right image, and while we love him... do you have a beloved uncle in your family who has the tendency to often be quite inappropriate?"

Mei-Ling had laughter in her eyes as she nodded at that. "Well that's Uncle Roan! We had no doubt that he'd mean well, but it was the question of just what image would be presented that worried us, so having Auntie Di there to provide the necessary checks and balances makes us much more comfortable about what we'll see when it's done."

When Li-Wei came back with Casey, he wanted to know what Mei-Ling and Sarah were laughing about, but he joined in the laughter when Mei-Ling told him. " _They were just telling me that they have an uncle like Uncle Li-Wei who you were named after in their family too."_

In the morning, Sarah and Casey delivered Li-Wei to the State Department people, and they were notified when he was safely back on Chinese soil in the Consulate. That call came through just before they had to take Mei-Ling to Bob Hope Airport to be flown to DC to start her depositions.

* * *

The contractors arrived the next day to start preparations for the changes to El Castillo, so the initial plans at least had obviously met with Auntie Di's approval. One of the things they would be doing was removing the actual armour glass from that end of the building and replacing it with normal mirror glass, with protection behind it anywhere the blast effect would hit before the blast, because that armour glass was expensive stuff, not something to be wasted, even if they did own the company that made it (Chuck's father had come up with the process to create it).

To this end, they set up equipment to quickly lift the sheets of armour glass up onto the roof and began unfastening them while the demolitions experts planned a blast that looked spectacular and levelled the buildings at the end, but didn't really harm anything it wasn't supposed to. They also emptied everything they wanted to keep out of the Charlemagne and Thebes offices.

On the night of the blast, they started working as soon as the sun went down, and all of the armour glass was under cover on the roof within a few hours. They were ready to set off the blast by eleven, and as soon as they had the all clear, up it went. The Police were suspicious of the fact that the FBI got there before they did, but accepted the explanation that they'd been looking into gang activity in the area, so they'd kept the task force on the ready. Once the fire crews had put out the fires and confirmed that as far as they could see, no-one had been in there, the FBI took over the site and kicked everyone else out.

There _were_ questions about how construction started on the extension of the existing building next door to encompass the entire block within a couple of weeks, but records of threatened multi-million dollar lawsuits against both the owners of the property where the explosion had been _and_ the city for the damage incurred to the building explained the hasty sale of the property and approval of the construction permits.

The wedding planning committee ended up being made up of Ellie, Emma, Anna, Lou, Alex, Auntie Di, Uncle Roan and, surprisingly, John and Carina (Mary said that she wasn't qualified to help with something like this). They were pressured by the powers that be into having a military wedding, but no-one in the family was surprised when Chuck stuck to his guns about Anna being his 'best man', as she'd been his best friend and family since he was ten and he didn't turn his back on either. Lou, Uncle Bry, Casey, Jeff, Skip and Rick were the other 'Groom's men' while Ellie was the Maid of Honour and Carina, Zondra, Lottie, Charlie, Viv and Kim were the Bride's maids, and Uncle Bry was giving the bride away too, so they had the wedding party sorted (it _was_ rather bigger than either of them planned, but once Sarah decided that she wanted the girls, their sisters and Carina and Zondra standing with her, it had to be), and the wedding would be performed by a Navy Chaplin, so they were halfway there, sort of.

Roan had charmed influential people into getting Vera Wang to do all the dresses for the wedding party, and she'd insisted on making up custom tailored Navy Dress Whites for the Chaplain and everyone on the groom's side as well, including the 'best man' and the other female 'groom's man'. At least with the Thirty Seven, getting to New York for the fittings wasn't that difficult. Roan also helped procure the perfect wedding location for them, a beautiful plantation house in Virginia, because the majority of the guests would be coming from DC so it would be easier for the LA contingent to fly over.


	13. Going to the Chapel

****Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.****

 ** **NB: One of the characters gets the same parents he had in one of my previous stories, because I happen to think that it's a good combination, but it's _evil_ Graham this time. ********And both Bry and Anna get double duties at the wedding.****

Chuck had them all worried when when he suddenly froze, staring at Rick, and then jumped up and rushed out of the room without a word when they were in the middle of talking about the wedding plans and winding up Ellie about why didn't she have her _own_ wedding if she was so excited about them.

What Chuck wasn't about to tell them until he'd confirmed _all_ the details was that he'd had a flash on Rick, or more to the point Rick's father, and he rushed off to try and get Auntie Phoebes to refute what he'd just seen about who Leroy Jackson actually was. That discussion didn't relieve his worry, because she described Leroy as a tall, imposing man who was reportedly one of the CIA's best black ops specialists, but he'd disappeared by the time she found out she was pregnant. When he pressed for more details she said that he was one hell of a man and brilliant, and there was something underneath, but in general he was pretty much a bastard. She admitted that that had been part of what had attracted her to him actually because he was dangerous and exciting and one of the rare few who were man enough to be able to handle her. She shook her head with a laugh. "Like most girls I was into bad boys back then, and Leroy was sure that!"

She could see that this wasn't idle interest, so she asked him straight out. "Charlie Honey, what's all this about?" (Cleopatra Jones had been one of the few agents who could keep up with the CIA's famous Agent Frost long enough for them to become friends, so she'd known Chuck all his life, even if she hadn't had a chance to see him much when he was little.)

He was starting to worry her now, because he was struggling to tell her, but eventually he forced it out. "I…. I flashed on Rick's birth certificate while we were winding up Ellie about getting married, and when I saw his father's name I flashed on _that_ , too and…. You see Leroy Jackson was the name someone we're dealing with was using back then and…. Oh fuck it!... Do you think this could be an older version of Leroy Auntie Phoebes?"

Phoebe looked carefully at the image he brought up and started to nod, but when she took in the setting he was in she suddenly realised who this must be and looked horrified. "No Charlie... _please_ don't tell me that Ricky's father is actually Langston Fucking _Graham_!"

Chuck suddenly had the woman who had had almost as many terrified of her as Frost crying in his arms. He pointed out that they didn't know for sure that Graham was Leroy, and was in the middle of promising her that he'd dig up what they needed to prove it one way or another when Rick, Ellie and Sarah arrived, because Sarah and Ellie had been worried about what was up with Chuck, and Rick came along to pick up the pieces if it was something bad. The tide turned for Rick when he saw his mother crying in Chuck's arms and he rushed to find out what was wrong, but Sarah and Ellie had seen the image up on the screen and, being the brilliant women that they were, worked out what this was all about. Ellie looked at Chuck, horrified, and he nodded grimly. He would do the investigation as he'd promised Auntie Phoebes, but there was enough information in the Intersect to confirm the fact that the man that Ellie was destined to marry was Langston Graham's son.

He was hoping to hold off on telling Rick until he had proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt, but Auntie Phoebes knew Charlie, and knew that he wouldn't have come to her unless he was already sure, so she pointed to the screen. "Ricky…. That's your Daddy."

Rick froze when he looked at the screen, because he'd been working for Auntie Di long enough to know who _that_ bastard was. He was almost pleading when he turned to Chuck. "You can't be sure Chuck! You're only guessing at this point, right?"

"As I said to Auntie Phoebes Rick, I'll do an investigation and…."

Phoebe cut him off at that point. "Don't give him false hope Charlie, you knew when you came to me, you just needed me to say it… You're certain that Ricky's father is Graham, aren't you?"

He nodded regretfully. "Yes Auntie Phoebes, I was desperately hoping that you'd tell me something to refute what I was seeing, but yes, I'm certain that Langston Graham is Rick's _biological_ father."

Phoebe gave him a grateful smile for that last distinction, because while Graham may have fathered Ricky, he never had been, and never _would_ be, a father to her son. They talked Rick through the shock of this news, and then Ellie announced that this didn't change anything for her, she still wanted to marry him, the sooner the better! That led to Sarah and Ellie deciding on the spot to have a double wedding, but Phoebe threw a bucket of cold water over the excited discussion by pointing out that Mary had to know who her son-in-law to be's biological father was, so they called Mary and Emma to come to the room, and opened a secure link to Diane.

They were all horrified by the news, but equally quick to jump on the distinction that Graham was nothing more than Rick's _biological_ father. When Diane tried to lighten the mood by suggesting that Phoebe could have been a little more choosy about the men she slept with, that sparked a round of 'you can talk!s' that had all four of the older women blushing about some of the choices they'd made back then, though Mary apparently had less to be embarrassed about than the others.

* * *

When everyone was feeling better, they called in the rest of the wedding planners to tell them that it would be a double wedding now, and that Anna was going to have the distinction of serving as the best man for one wedding, and the maid of honour for the other. Carina was now becoming Sarah's maid of honour and Lou was changing sides to become one of the brides' maids, while Vinnie Smith was being added as Rick's best man and Javier Cruz as another grooms' man. When they contacted Vera to ask whether she would handle both weddings, she tore strips off of them for even _suggesting_ that anyone else would arrange any part of this wedding, but she conceded with a laugh that the situation with Anna was definitely a first.

Now that Rick was to be a groom though, there were comments from those who knew that it would be a little embarrassing for a Navy Lieutenant to be to so prominent with the Admiral and Commanders up there, especially with Anna being a Captain and Rick's bride an Admiral. They suggested that Rick be married as an Army Lieutenant Colonel but Vera was upset that the Army Dress Uniform was going to ruin the image she envisaged (she was picturing an all white wedding with ivory ribbons and gardenias in the snow with the lovely white stone plantation house as the backdrop and Ellie and Rick were just as taken by that winter wonderland imagery as Sarah and Chuck were). That gave Auntie Di an idea and she called the Secretary of Defense, so the next day Vera was flying to DC to try and talk to the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Army into allowing the discontinued Army full white Dress Whites to be worn in the Wedding Party.

The Secretary of Defense was so entertained by watching these so-called hard men buckle to Vera that he had a quiet word with Diane to confirm that Colonel Casey's primary rank was in fact in the Marines, and Lieutenant Colonel Johnson's (Skip's real name was Michael Johnson) was in the Air Force, and then he gleefully organised meetings with the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and the Secretary of the Navy with both the Commandant of the Marine Corps and Chief of the Navy for Vera. By the end of the day, they had formal dispensations from the Army, Marines and Air Force for the wedding party and others in notable roles to wear their services' discontinued full white dress uniforms, _and_ a dispensation for _all_ attending to wear miniature ribbons rather than medals and miniature badges on all uniforms from all four services for the wedding. Of course, this meant that any of the ones they talked to who hadn't already been on the guest list _were_ now.

There was more than a little grumbling going on about discontinued uniforms being worn at the wedding and the…. _r_ _equest_ … from the ranking groom that anyone who was required to attend in uniform wear the most conservative version of their uniform allowed, and that _all_ join the wedding party in only wearing miniature ribbons and badges as per the dispensations issued for their wedding. The final note on that request had most men who complained sleeping on the couch though. 'It would greatly appreciated if all would honour this request so that _both_ brides can remember this most important day with joy, and not disappointment because their wedding day was turned into a three ring circus.'

* * *

While there was grumbling elsewhere, these dispensations made those organising the weddings quite happy. Vera's people had one more bridal gown, one more brides' maid's dress and two more uniforms to make, and there were four styles of uniform to be made now rather than one, but she was excited about how the wedding had expanded into a double wedding with eighteen in the combined wedding party, and having one woman serving as both a best man and maid of honour…. she _had_ to meet this Captain Wang! (Like Chuck and Ellie, Anna had been active in both combat and intelligence roles for fifteen years and so was a grade above Commander Barnes, but Jeff didn't mind.)

Vera was a little perturbed when she discovered that the original maid of honour and one of the brides' maids were the original groom's sisters, two more of the brides' maids were his _daughters_ , and another was his daughters' mother! The original bride had _seemed_ to be a strong woman, but she couldn't imagine this being anything other than her being forced to take them. Sarah saw this going through her head and pulled her aside for a quiet chat. "It was _my_ idea Vera, not Chuck's! You see I grew up with him and Ellie until I was seven, and even though Chuck and I had decided that we were going to be married one day by the time we were five, Ellie was always like a big sister to me. By the time I came back to them earlier this year, Chuck had another sister, _and_ two lovely daughters, and I had a stepsister as well, so _I_ wanted all of them to be up there with us. Carina and Zondra are my friends from the last five or six years, and Anna, who is Chuck's best man and Ellie's maid of honour, and Lou, who's Lottie and Charlie's mother, are a lesbian couple…."

She paused to let that sink in. "You see Anna has been Chuck and Ellie's best friend for over sixteen years, and the only reason Lou wasn't there for the same period was that she experimented with Chuck when her hormones started going wild when she was going into her teens, but she found out that while as wonderful as Chuck was and no matter how much she cared about him, he didn't do anything for her _that_ way, but Anna did! However Lou had gotten pregnant at thirteen, so her father carted her straight off to Israel! My Aunt tracked her down and brought her and the girls back six years ago after Anna let slip about them both experimenting with Chuck and finding out that he didn't do it for them when they were thirteen, because she guessed that that may have had something to do with Lou's disappearance, so that's how we're all together!"

Vera was shaking her head, as this had to be the most bizarre arrangement she'd ever heard of, but they were obviously all very close and happy, so she wasn't going to argue with it. The brides agreed to let her go with another idea she had, but couldn't promise to wear them. These were uniform styled evening jackets to go with the wedding and brides' maids' dresses that displayed their rank and miniature medal ribbons and badges. While the rules forbid mixing uniforms and civilian dress, these weren't actually uniforms…. but it _was_ a grey area, and the SEALs would be insulted if Ellie wore her's without her SEAL trident, but that was something they'd tried to keep quiet.

Sarah _did_ catch how Chuck had tried to quickly finish that discussion by telling Vera that they'd send all the rank insignia and medal ribbons over together. She knew about Ellie's and Lou's ranks and medals, so she was pretty sure that that had to have more to do with _her_ , which of course meant that he and her Aunt had some explaining to do when they got back to LA.

When they told her, she found that she quite liked the idea of being Shanti to Chuck's Mowgli (and realised how it helped shore up Auntie Di's story about her being part of the group from the start), but brought up the fact that Rick would need a name to identify him with the group too. Chuck and Ellie agreed, looking at each other as they thought on that, and then Chuck suddenly said. "Won-Tolla" Ellie shook her head at him, but kissed him for it too, and they had to explain for those who weren't as familiar with the Jungle Book stories that Won-Tolla had been on the edge of the pack but earned his place _in_ the pack. Sarah nodded at that, because it did fit Rick quite well.

While Vera had the couples there, she managed to wrangle agreement for creative control of the wedding venue from them as well, because she wanted this to be perfect! It didn't take much effort to get that agreement from them though, because both couples loved her vision of what their wedding should be.

Of course now they had to worry about whether Stephen could stay on an even keel for long enough to give Ellie away and get through the wedding without causing a scene.

* * *

In the middle of this, Langston Graham was forced to come to the Human Intersect team again in an attempt to recover someone that the CIA had lost and couldn't locate. He would have preferred to just have this embarrassment eliminated before he could talk to anyone, but he was too smart to try and demand that the Intersect team to do _that_. That was why he painted Laszlo as a high value asset who was _also_ a homicidal lunatic, hoping to instil enough doubt in them to ensure that when Laszlo did the sort of paranoid and violent things he was bound to do, they would misconstrue his actions and end up shooting him when they tried to recover him.

Graham's problem was that he still had no idea of just how much was stored in the Intersect database, and even less about just what Chuck, especially, could get out of the CIA's systems and archives. That meant that as soon as he identified Laszlo Mahnovski as a high value asset who they wanted recovered, but who had killed his handlers quite gruesomely (supplying copious pictures to emphasise this) in a psychotic incident when he escaped from the facility where he was, the alarm bells started going off so they immediately started digging through the CIA's systems to find out everything there was to know about Laszlo Mahnovski.

He also didn't know any of them very well if he thought that he could make the agents in _this_ team nervous enough to shoot Laszlo rather than trying to find a way to capture him.

The others couldn't work out why Chuck got quieter and quieter the deeper he delved into Laszlo's story, until he put it all up on screen. They understood then, because if not for Diane and Bry spiriting him and Ellie away as soon as his father disappeared, this nightmare could have been _his_ life. That chilled everyone's blood, Casey just looked up at the screen and said "Chuck me!" in a despairing, horrified tone.

Laszlo was a genius, at Chuck's level if not above in scientific areas, though he didn't appear to have Chuck's range or other attributes he got from his mother. When he was eleven, a CIA recruiter who'd been trolling for late high school and college age prospects had discovered him in an arcade parlour and, having absolutely no morals or compunctions about taking a child's life away, had convinced his blue collar parents that the CIA could give him the all opportunities he needed to make the most of himself, using the fact that _they_ could never do that to talk them into signing control of him over to the CIA's representatives.

Laszlo had earned his degrees at fourteen and his Ph D at seventeen all right, but that was the last he'd seen of the outside world. The CIA had been using him like they had Stefan to create whatever technology they wanted, but they'd kept him locked away in an underground bunker without any access to the outside world to try and ensure that they didn't lose him they way they had Stefan. That was one of the few things that Graham had told the truth about, Laszlo _was_ a lunatic. Because of the fact that he never saw anyone but his handlers and CIA agents or left the facility where he was, according to the reports they found, the life he'd been forced to live had driven him more than a little crazy!

Then there was the fact that they'd been using drugs and sex to try and keep him under control in there for years, and it was a toss up as to which of those things would have screwed with his head more, being so drugged up that he didn't know what was a dream and what was reality for days or weeks, and then the withdrawal from the drugs when they decided that they had more work for him, or having women coming in, to convince him that they loved him and screw his brains out for weeks or months at a time, then walk out without a backwards glance when they were told that the assignment was over. The more they read, the more they wondered how Laszlo wasn't worse than he was.

* * *

Reading this made one thing clear to everybody, they had to get to this guy before the CIA and rescue him! They knew that the CIA would have had a head start, because Graham wouldn't have engaged them until he'd just about given up on his own people finding him, but they _did_ have one big advantage, this being that whereas the CIA's agents thought like... well... agents, Chuck, Anna and their crowd, but especially Chuck thought like a nerd, like Laszlo. Going through Laszlo's history, it took less than an hour for Chuck to determine where he'd be, the arcades where the Antichrist had found him and taken away his innocence, his life, when he was eleven.

Time was of the essence here because they were racing to get to him before the CIA, so they were throwing options out all over the place. Casey was too old and looked like a cop, Sarah, Carina and Zondra, hell, most of the girls, were too tall and beautiful for nerdland, and he'd pick most of them as agents after being screwed into submission by so many agents. Lou, Jeff and Skip were out because they didn't have the background to look after themselves in a dangerous situation (IE: shooting it out with the CIA) and Jeff was too old anyway. It didn't take them long to accept that Chuck and Anna were the only ones who could pull this off, as Anna had been part of that world, could change her appearance with makeup and at not much over five foot tall, she didn't stand out like the other girls, but she had at least as much training as most of them, as much experience at this as half of them too. They took along 'tranq' darts that contained a drug left the target conscious, but without control of their motor functions, so they couldn't call out or struggle. Sarah, Casey, Carina and Zondra would be waiting in a van just off-site to extract them or deal with the CIA if they turned up.

All of this was agreed in the fifteen minutes it took for Chuck and Anna to change their appearance enough to blend into the crowd in the arcades while the others grabbed the darts etc and jump in the van, then they were on their way to the Santa Monica Pier. Anna found Laszlo in under fifteen minutes as he was involved in a Guitar Shredder battle with some bearded loser who was way too old to be acting like a brat, throwing a tantrum the way that he was. Even with Laszlo's rampant paranoia, Anna had learnt enough from Uncle Roan to get him off into a dark corner to make out, and they were just getting into this when Chuck stuck the dart into him, grabbing him to prevent him collapsing. Anna bitched at him about not getting there earlier, but she knew that he'd moved in as soon as he could.

Chuck quickly got Laszlo's duster off of him and shrugged into it, making other changes as well so that neither of them looked like they had earlier. He gave Anna a hug and sent her out one way while he 'walked' Laszlo out another way (making it look easy even though he was carrying him), saying "You promised that you weren't going to take that shit any more! This is the last time, you're on your own after this!" as he went. Those who heard put it down to a habitual drug user who always had to be bailed out and looked after by his buddy, and half of them were saying to themselves. 'Yeah, you say that now, but next time he calls you'll come to bail his arse out again, because that's what friends do.'

Anna was out front watching, so as soon as Chuck came out with Laszlo, she called the van in. It was there in a flash and Casey hauled Laszlo in, with Chuck and Anna hopping in and the van taking off within twenty seconds. Sarah swore as she quietly drove off though, because she'd spotted at least two CIA agents heading for the pier, so they'd only just gotten him out in time. A few more minutes and the CIA would have had him, or they would have been shooting it out with them on the crowded pier.

* * *

Chuck administered the antidote to the drug he'd given him, but also gave him a sedative to put him out. Back at the Castle, they put him in the apartment in the dungeon, watching for when he started to wake up. When he did, Chuck went in to talk to him. "Hi, I'm Chuck, how are you feeling?"

"You drugged me!"

"Yeah, I did, and just in time, too." He brought up the video that the van's cameras had taken as they drive away, stopping it when it showed the agents that Sarah had spotted. "I presume you know who _they_ are?" Laszlo spat out. "CIA!"

Chuck nodded "Yeah, that was as we were leaving, did you hear our driver saying 'Fuck!'?" Laszlo nodded. "That was why."

"Are you telling me that you _aren't_ CIA?"

"No, well my wife is still technically CIA but we don't work for them, and we don't like them, especially Director Graham."

"Don't give me that! That bitch who seduced me to get me into that corner for you was definitely an agent!"

Chuck's pleasant expression slipped. "Don't call her a bitch! She's my best friend! And no, even though Anna's had agent training she's _not_ an agent. In fact I'd do my best to avoid her if I were you as she doesn't swing that way so what she had to do with you was quite unpleasant for her, and she could very easily kick your arse if you said or did the slightest thing to upset her."

Laszlo was totally confused by now, all the more so because he actually believed what this guy was telling him. "So what happens now?"

"We need to get you away from here as quick as we can, because as you saw the CIA _are_ looking for you. We've got a plane ready to take you back east where our people can get you out of sight for a while." He hesitated here, as what he said next could go really badly.

"Laszlo, we want to put you in therapy with our psychiatrist, you were put through a lot of shit over the last sixteen years and…."

Laszlo cut him off. "Chuck, it's alright, I'm not so fucked up that I don't _know_ that I'm fucked up..."

It was his turn to hesitate then. "But how do I know that this _is_ therapy and not the agency brainwashing me into going back to work though?"

Chuck shook his head. "Shit! You and my Dad are going to get on like a house on fire!…. Look, there's nothing I can do or say to prove this to you Laszlo, but we have someone else over there working with Doctor Dreyfus to deal with his own problems, my father. You should be able to tell who my father is when you see him. Hopefully that will help give you a little more confidence."

"OK, presuming that this is what you say it is and it works, what happens after that? Can you help me stay away from the CIA?"

"I think so, the first thing we need to do is change your name, as both Laszlo and Mahnovski are too distinctive, too easy to search on. We came up with Leslie Mahoney as the closest name phonetically that isn't likely to be linked to your original name." Laszlo tried 'Leslie Mahoney' on the tongue a few times and nodded, he thought he could get used to that.

Chuck nodded. "Good! We'll use that from now on then, to help you get used to it. As for after…. we weren't planning on going into this until you're ready, but my father was actually your predecessor at the CIA, creating most of the technology that the CIA, or Graham at least, wanted. He did something stupid and desperate over seventeen years ago and he's been having therapy to try to deal with it for the last fourteen years…. He's off with the pixies all too often but when he's there he still has the brain that made him what he was and he's been coming up with the equipment that the group that I work with needs for the last fourteen years or so when he's able to work. What we're planning to do is offer you a choice when you and Doctor Dreyfus think that you're ready. You can either go into the witness protection scheme and _hope_ that the CIA or someone else doesn't find you and put you to work again, or you can work with my Dad. I can promise you that it would be different from what you had to do for the CIA because you would _always_ have the right to refuse to work on anything you didn't agree with. I _can_ guarantee that because I'm actually the one in charge of that group, I work with Dad sometimes and manage everything."

Laszlo no, Leslie, nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, I guess I'll have time to talk to your father about this while we're there, but working with you on interesting projects and being able to say no to things I don't want to work on certainly sounds better than dying of boredom somewhere out in Bumfuck Idaho."

Chuck grinned at that and nodded. He dropped some clothes on the chair and pointed out the bathroom, saying. "Why don't you have a shower and freshen up before we head for the airport."

Once again, he hesitated before continuing. "I know that you could probably get into our systems if you wanted to with what's in here, but if you do, _don't_ fuck with them! We rely on those systems to protect our family and interfering with that protection will lose you any goodwill you have with us. Also, don't try to screw with the agent who's flying back east with you, she's a friend as well, my wife's best friend actually, and you'll find that we're very protective of the people we love. You don't want to find out how far we'll go to protect the people we love, trust me on that!"

Leslie just nodded without saying a word, as this was the second time he'd seen that look in Chuck's eye and he had no doubt that he meant every word he said _and_ that he was quite capable of following through on the implied threat.

Half an hour later, there were teary goodbyes as Carina headed off to the airport with Leslie, they knew that she'd be at the wedding in a month or two and the girls would be seeing her before then at the dress fittings, but it hadn't been that long since she came back into Sarah's life and she might be back east with Dr Dreyfus for a while if she needed more help to get her head straightened out after what she'd been made to do for the DEA for so long.

Jeff was going with them, because they'd decided that the Twenty Eight would be a better way to fly under the radar than the Thirty Seven (figuratively speaking, but the Twenty Eight was quite capable of literally doing that too with a good enough pilot). Carina would be staying in DC with Leslie, Dr Dreyfus and Chuck's father up until the wedding to protect them and work with Dr Dreyfus, and they'd make a call then about whether she and the Doctor thought that staying longer would help with her own issues.

They played Graham along for another week, telling him that they'd had no sightings of the target, then Diane started asking how much longer the CIA was expecting to tie her team up with this and reminded him that the CIA were being charged for the operating costs for her entire team for the period that they were demanding that they concentrated on this manhunt of his. He swore under his breath, because he'd forgotten about that in his panic to recover or shut up Mahnovski, and asked what the charges were so far.

Diane made a show of looking up the figure (because Sarah had told them that he didn't appear to have their memory so it would be better to keep that from him) and told him that the figure stood at four hundred and eighty thousand at the moment, and that would be increasing by sixty thousand per day, plus expenses. He muttered something and told her to discontinue the search for Laszlo Mahnovski and present the bill. Diane smiled and said that he'd have it in his inbox within the hour, cutting the link.

* * *

The day of the wedding dawned clear and sunny, which was a great relief to everyone, as this meant that it could be an outdoor wedding as planned and that let Vera's vision of a winter wonderland wedding come about. The last of the participants and guests had arrived from Los Angeles the previous night (the Thirty Seven had been going back and forth across the country for the past couple of days, delivering everyone to the wedding), and they'd been mingling with their guests at the wedding venue for a while before the wedding. There were a few eye openers with the number of three and four star Generals and Admirals present, and some quite notable figures as well, not just the President of the United States, they also had the Secretary for Defense, Secretary of State, the Army, Navy and Air Force, the DNI and the Directors of the FBI and NSA there, but the biggest shock for those who recognised her was the presence of the CIA's Director of the National Clandestine Services, Jane Bentley, because the nature of this group's relationship with the CIA was well known.

They were glad to see that Stephen appeared to be well grounded, and so did Leslie actually because he and Leo Dreyfus had come down with Carina and Stephen. Leo was having a laugh with Diane about the fact that it appeared to be the talking to that _Carina_ gave the two of them about what she'd do to them if either of them did anything to ruin this day for Sarah and Ellie that had dragged them far enough into the real world to stay rooted in it for a while.

Emma also had a nice conversation with Jane while they were waiting for the brides to arrive. Sarah had told her how Jane had helped her when she was her handler, and that when she was her mentor she gave her someone to turn to after that too, so Emma was grateful to Jane for looking after her little girl.

When the ceremony started, those who hadn't known about it were making quite a few comments about the fact that the 'best man' was in fact a rather small _woman_ (especially after the requirements they'd been forced to agree to to _avoid_ a spectacle), but they were pointedly told to shut up by those who knew the brides and grooms. The fact that most of the people who knew them appeared to be rather dangerous had the effect of silencing any comments very quickly.

The only glitch during the actual ceremony was the fact that Chuck had to be prompted to respond as he was looking at his bride in a happy daze. A sharp elbow in the ribs from his 'best man' got him back on track though.

After the wedding kisses there was another surprise, in that there were three separate sword arches, from the Army, Navy and Marines, though were a few Air Force officers in each of them too, and the men making up the sword arches were all in dress whites as well. Any questions about that were merely answered with the fact that the brides and grooms had operated with all four services and therefore it was deemed only appropriate that they should all be represented.

There were more outraged comments when the wedding pictures were being taken (that was another restriction of this wedding, _no_ pictures would be taken other than the official ones, and the guests were actually searched and had their phones etc taken from them) about these people wearing rank insignia and medals that they couldn't have possibly earned, because Sarah, Ellie, Carina, Zondra and Lou were all wearing the faux uniform jackets to display their ranks and medal ribbons and Mary, Emma, Phoebe, Stephen, Diane and in fact all of their core people were there in dress whites, but these people were told quite forcibly to shut up and read their name tags. Reading 'Mowgli', 'Raksha', 'Rikki', 'Baloo', 'Bagheera' and 'Akela' shut most of them up. 'Shanti', 'Won-Tolla', 'Ikki', 'Ferao', 'Darzee', 'Chil', 'Ko', 'Kaa', 'Pappu', 'Mang' and 'Mor' didn't mean as much to them, but they'd gotten the message and accepted that this group had earned their ranks and medals, and more besides with what they had done.

The ones who _didn't_ understand what those names meant were taken aside and had it explained to them in very clear and simple terms just what would happen to them if they _ever_ spoke a word about this to anyone. It was pointed out that the President and just about everyone important in the Military and Intelligence communities were there (with more than a few from friendly powers as well), so there was no chance that they would have been allowed to wear them if they _hadn't_ earned them. They also pointed out that the SOCOM Commander was a SEAL himself, so he would _never_ have let anyone who hadn't earned the right to do so wear a SEAL trident, but he obviously didn't have a problem with Mowgli or Raksha, in fact he'd looked proud to see them wearing their's. (Both Chuck and Ellie were wearing miniature SEAL, Naval Aviator and Command Ashore badges.)

The reception was inside the plantation house (because while they wanted Vera's winter wonderland for the wedding itself, it was too cold and there was too much chance of the weather turning to have the reception outside), so the newlyweds led everyone inside once all the pictures were finished. That took a while though, because as well as the wedding party and their families, they had to have pictures taken with many of the dignitaries there. They had to thank Roan again when they got inside, as the setting was utterly beautiful. There was a quite a bit of laughter when the first woman that Chuck danced with after his bride and his sister was in fact his 'best man', but next after her was his bride's maid of honour, then the rest of the brides' maids, his new mother-in-law, his mother, the President's daughters, Alex (McHugh), Josie, Auntie Charly's daughter Katie, his sister's new mother-in-law, Auntie Di, 'Aunt Jane', Auntie Charly and most of the women working for Thebes Security after that. He hardly got to sit down throughout the reception.

* * *

One thing that they'd grudgingly had to concede was that they couldn't afford to be off-line long enough to take a proper honeymoon, so Roan had pulled out all stops to get the structural work done on the other end of the building building, get it re-clad with mirrored armour glass and complete the penthouse and roof garden in time for the wedding. Building the penthouse off the existing frameworks for the roof perimeter armour glass had saved them enough time to get it done on schedule. One thing that Chuck and Ellie didn't know (they knew that they were up to something, but thought it was just something to do with the wedding) was that Roan had had a meeting with Sarah and Rick soon after Ellie and Rick decided to get married, to get their thoughts on a proposed change to the design of the penthouse.

The original design of the penthouse had had it as an 'L' shape, with the entertainment areas right across the end of the building and a residential wing up one side with the bedrooms, a private kitchen and lounge and the like. What he was proposing now though was a 'U' shape with _two_ residential wings, one for the Carmichaels and one for the Nobles. They all knew how close Ellie and Chuck were, even when Chuck was up at Stanford, they'd always started the day off talking to each other, they _also_ knew how much Chuck hated him getting anything that Ellie didn't when he believed that she deserved just as much, so when Ellie and Rick announced that they were getting married too, Roan had had the penthouse redesigned, with a private wing for each couple and shared formal entertainment areas. Rick and Roan looked at Sarah, because she was the one who would be sharing her penthouse here, but she shook her head at them. "Are you kidding? Chuck and Ellie will _love_ this, and so will I! Do it Uncle Roan!"

Roan beamed at her, as that was exactly the answer he'd expected from Emma's daughter, and said that they would also be making some changes to their covers to make Ellie more prominent to help explain this, so they'd be letting it get out that Ellie and Chuck were in fact siblings and she'd come west with him. Charlemagne's old office space would be taken over by her new business, Noble House Consulting, which would be marketed as an industry think tank.


	14. Rotten Honeymoon But Great Present

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world or a Disney Princess tale.**

 **There will probably be changes in the first hour or so because I always see things that don't look quite right to me when it goes up in its final form.**

They decided to have some fun, put on a show and make a statement when they left the reception, and they did that by Ellie and Rick jumping into the Loach and Chuck and Sarah jumping into one Lakota as they made touch and gos right outside the ballroom where the reception was held with the Little Birds and other Lakota as escorts, all in full stealth mode. After they watched the five black helicopters disappear quietly into the night, the top brass turned on the SOCOM Commander, demanding to know why they hadn't been made aware that they had such effective stealth technology at their disposal. At first he was angry as he said that they _didn't_ , but his expression cleared and he laughed as he realised what had been done here. "We don't... but who has always been the ahead of the rest of us in tactical aircraft and equipment?"

At that, most of them turned to the diminutive general standing nearby in her full dress whites, because she was the one who commanded the group who always had the bleeding edge tactical technology, and the smile she gave them didn't bode well for someone. "No, you don't, because those stealth helicopters are in fact privately owned by the defense contractor that developed them, working with the Special Projects Group..."

Diane gave another evil smile as she waved to a side room and asked. "Would you like to hear why you _don't_ have that technology at your disposal gentlemen?" Only about half of the men who wanted to be in on that discussion managed to get into the room to hear it.

* * *

Officially, the newlyweds had to leave as soon as the reception finished to fly back to LA because an urgent mission had come up, so Sarah demanded to know what was going on as soon as they were in the air because they headed _east_ over the Atlantic, rather than west. Chuck stopped Ellie winding her up about it being a secret wedding present and came clean because he could see she was getting angry.

The Israelis had captured a Russian MiG-31B that Syria was trialling a few days before when it wandered into Israeli airspace after its radios failed, forcing it to land at Ramat David. Because the pilot had lost radio contact before they intercepted him, as far as the Syrians knew, the MiG had just crashed into the Mediterranean. The Israelis were worried about the potential backlash from Russia if someone found out that it was there though, so after debating the matter for a day or so they'd offered it to the United States Air Force, so long as they got it out of there ASAP.

The Air Force had jumped at the opportunity to get their hands on a MiG-31 and sent a crew straight over on a B-1B (using the 'running on fumes' line to explain the B-1B landing at Ramat David, but that wasn't too far from the truth, as they'd flown it non-stop from the States with a few drop tanks in the bomb bay), to strip as much weight as they could out of it, paint over any identifying markings and make it ready for an extended flight, fitting it with USAF compatible in-flight refuelling probes, oxygen systems, radios and transponders like they had with the MiG-25 so that it could be flown back to the States (and at Chuck's private request, disconnected the airspeed restrictions). When they ordered Chuck to fly it back because he was the only USAF pilot qualified to fly that type of MiG, Chuck demanded that Sarah be the second pilot and by then they were too desperate to get their hands on the MiG-31 to argue. (He'd turned them down flat and called the Chief of Staff of the Air Force to resign his commission the first time they tried to order him to cancel his wedding and leave immediately and the Chief of Staff had been on the phone and ripping into them a few minutes later, so they were willing to agree to any of his demands at that point.)

They would be flying the MiG-31 back to Palmdale for it to be dismantled and examined at Plant 42, and when they were close enough to Palmdale to get there safely, Chuck's plan was to give Sarah her shot at piloting a plane past Mach 3. Ellie couldn't decide whether it was a good thing or not that the closest thing to a bedroom on their Thirty Seven was the convertible sofas when Sarah jumped on Chuck for that, but she and Rick shared the jump seat in the cockpit with John and Anna until the noise died down.

Much of the flight over was spent in coaching Sarah on what she needed to know about flying a Russian jet of this type, but luckily her Cyrillic and Arabic comprehension was almost as good as Chuck's was so that wouldn't be a problem. By the time they landed at Ramat David, she had the theory down, so Chuck just had to coach her on the physical controls and quirks as they were going through the check lists.

This coaching and the 'JUST MARRIED' banners, ribbons and tin cans Ellie and Anna had added to the jet had some of the USAF personnel who'd readied the MiG for the flight worried, but the Crew Chief and over half of the team were there because the Air Force had grabbed everyone they could find from the original team who had come over in 2002 to ready the Libyan MiG-25PD for Chuck pretty much the same way, so they told the worriers that Mowgli knew what he was doing, and said that both Mowgli and Raksha were fully qualified Air Force Test Pilots.

The banners and ribbons were torn off by the air stream soon after the MiG took off, but they'd served their purpose because Ellie and Anna (and Casey) had gotten their photos. As soon as the MiG left and they'd finished loading the last of the MiG-31 parts and the ground crew and their equipment aboard their refuelled Thirty Seven (as they were also required to bring back all the equipment that had been stripped out of the MiG to improve its range and the USAF crew who had been flown to Israel to ready the MiG for the flight back), they thanked the Israelis and took off too, because the Israelis wanted everything to do with the MiG out of there ASAP.

* * *

The ones who hadn't known these people before this were wide eyed at some of the reminiscences they were hearing on the plane, about Raksha and Mowgli doing one of the last flights of the Blackbird at nearly Mach 3.5 back in Ninety Nine, of those record breaking flights from the States to the Middle East that Baloo had done with Mowgli in F-15Es in the early days of the War Against Terror... of Mowgli setting more records and taking that Foxbat past Mach 3.2 when he flew it back to the States to deliver it to the Air Force Museum back in Oh Two, and Mowgli and Baloo 'borrowing' ex-Soviet aircraft to get their teams out when missions went south. Most of them were beginning to see why the old hands hadn't been worried about the unconventional methods of these pilots.

Not all though, one of the young whiz kids questioned just what they were trying to do with those 'JUST MARRIED' signs, condescendingly saying. "Surely you didn't expect something as simple as _that_ to actually mask what type of plane it was?"

And the Crew Chief just about pissed himself laughing when Raksha turned to _him_ to say. "Please tell me that you didn't let this idiot handle anything critical on the MiG Crew Chief!" before turning on the man.

"You're obviously some sort of equal opportunity hire so I'll try to put this in small words! Just Married means _Just Married_! _We_ all had to cut our own wedding receptions… damn, too big a word!… _parties_ short to come on this mission! Mowgli and Shanti have to deliver the MiG and we have to deliver those parts and you lot to Plant Forty Two before we can start our honeymoons, such as they are, so shut up! And by the way? I saw the way you were ogling my sister-in-law's butt and you better believe that my brother would have too! So if I were you I'd be praying that they're long gone by the time we get to Palmdale, because in case you didn't recognise them, those IDF officers who came up to greet him at Ramat David? They were Shayetet Thirteen, the Israeli version of our SEALs! and the reason they know him is that he's trained and operated with them!"

The Crew Chief gave up on that idiot when he just scoffed at what she said, he'd been waiting for him to wake up and realise that he was just digging himself deeper into a hole, but no, he just kept diggin'! He'd been preparing and maintaining all manner of aircraft for this group for special missions for over fourteen years now, and he'd seen enough in that time to be quite sure what Raksha said was true, not that he'd question her word anyway… but she'd just let slip something _else_ , something that he regarded as more important here and now. He was a little upset that he hadn't been told about this before, but he expected that he would have found out at the wedding like most folk if he hadn't been pulled away and thrown onto a B-1B for this assignment a couple of days before. With that he stood up and crossed to where Ellie was sitting with Rick, offering Rick his hand. "Sir, may I offer my congratulations? You've got yourself one in a million here!"

Rick broke into a grin as he shook his hand. "Thank you Crew Chief, and believe me, I know!"

The Crew Chief turned to Ellie then, a little unsure how to address her... She was a senior officer, he had no doubt that her Colonel's rank was genuine and that it wasn't the only senior rank she held either... But for all the fact that they were exceptional pilots and absorbed more about and understood the aircraft they were flying better than any other pilots he'd ever known, she and her brother had just been teenagers when the then Colonel Beckman had first got him assigned to her team to look after them and their aircraft, so he'd taken the two of them under his wing.

Ellie could read his hesitation and what he was trying to say, and surged to her feet to hug him and kiss him on the cheek, whispering. "Thank you Hank!" and asking "Do you want to see the pictures?" excitedly.

He hardly got out "Of course!" before he was dragged down to sit beside her, Rick handing her her laptop with a smile. As she was showing him the wedding pictures, Ellie explained that, as he'd surmised, only a few people had known beforehand that it was to be a double wedding, so it had been a shock to most people at the wedding.

Hank froze when he saw the wedding party picture where Ellie, Sarah, Anna and Emma were wearing their faux uniform jackets, because he noted their ranks and medals instantly, and finding out that the 'kids' were _both_ one star Admirals and one of them had the Medal of Honor? Shit! He hadn't expected that! And he didn't miss the SEAL tridents they were both wearing either.

Ellie read his reaction again and swatted him on the arm. "Stop that! Yes, as well as being Navy Admirals we're both Colonels in the Air Force, Marines and Army, but we're still the same snot nosed kids who you drilled the rules of the aircraft into when you first took over making sure our planes and helicopters wouldn't fail us, and the highest rank either of us had back then was Captain or Navy Lieutenant... I expect Chuck will probably get two or three more grades before he's done, but we'll always think of you as Uncle Hank!"

He glanced quickly at the others. "That's not appropriate Ma'am!"

"Oh shut up _Uncle_ Hank, John's in the middle of putting the fear of god into them, so I'm sure they're too busy trying not to wet themselves to listen to anything we're saying..."

He glanced over again and chuckled, because she was right, then Ellie suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Did you hear what the General did to her protective detail?"

He was almost pissing himself laughing by the time she finished the 'back seat driver' story, but shook his head. "I better get over there and check the Twenty Eight out then, the General has never had your or Chuck's... or even John's... light hand on the controls."

Ellie just shook her head at him. "What do you mean 'get over there'? We're heading to Plant Forty Two right now, remember? We'll just get the General to cut you orders to say that you're spending a week or so going over the Twenty Eight, Thirty Seven, Tiger, Loach, Lakota, One Oh Nine and Bertha and Andre, because I know Chuck wants to talk to you about some new test platform Gulfstream has. I think he's planning another major upgrade on this, _aside_ from those new fly by wire systems he wants to put in, but Sarah will kill him if he tries to cut the pitiful excuse for a honeymoon we wrangled out of Auntie Di short to talk to you... I expect that you'll be needed at Plant Forty Two for meetings with the brass about your stealth project in the next week or two anyway, because we used the Loach, Lakotas and Little Birds in full stealth mode for our exit from the wedding reception."

* * *

It took the Thirty Seven nearly three times as long to get to Plant 42 as Chuck and Sarah had in the MiG, so they knew before they got there that Chuck had gotten himself another distance record, shared with Sarah this time, for doing a flight of over 8300 miles from Ramat David in Israel to Palmdale California in a bit over five and a half hours with seven aerial refuellings. They also knew that Sarah had officially taken the MiG-31B up to Mach 3.13 (with the restrictors removed, it had the thrust to get up there OK) and Chuck had taken it to Mach 3.15 too (while it was tempting to find out what it would do, taking it past Mach 3.2 like he did with the Foxbat probably would have burnt out the 31's engines too, and they wanted to examine this one). He wished he could have given Sarah the full experience of flying the MiG rather than being stuck in the rear cockpit hardly able to see anything like that, but he was the only one who knew really how to fly it so he had to be in the front cockpit. He'd officially handed control of the 31 over to her while she made her run though (they wrote it up as evaluating the plane's behaviour with different pilots), so Sarah _was_ in control of the plane when she took it past Mach 3, and the squeals he was hearing over the intercom at the time said that she loved it.

By the time the Thirty Seven arrived at Plant 42 over ten hours later, the MiG was half dismantled.

The one with the mouth almost fainted from the relief of hearing Raksha being told that Mowgli and Shanti had gone on ahead, and that they'd be in the Dungeon when they arrived. Hank was confused though, asking why they would be in the Dungeon?

Ellie explained. "They're staying in the apartment that we have down there at the moment Hank. You see Chuck's apartment is being renovated..." she stopped and frowned "Though it better be finished by now or Uncle Roan's going to be in big trouble, because he _promised_ that it'd be done by the time Chuck was married."

Hank grinned at that, as he wouldn't want to be Roan if Chuck's apartment _wasn't_ ready. He liked Roan, he really did, for all that he was the smooth, slippery type who's teeth he generally just wanted to kick in. He'd talked both Pilatus and Gulfstream into including all of the latest developments that he'd heard about from his buddies into the builds for the kids' planes... He'd also managed to talk the General into going along with their plan to get Ellie the brand new MD600N (instead of the MD500 she was planning because he knew that it would make a much better machine for the kids with a few changes) in Ninety Seven because she was getting upset that she wasn't getting to fly any more _and_ he saved them millions on plant and equipment and got the Fenestron tails and other parts they needed out of Eurocopter for their Stealth Project….. but if Roan had promised to deliver that apartment for Chuck and he hadn't…. well he'd be cheering Ellie on as she kicked his arse!

As soon as they'd off-loaded the parts and the rest of the crew, and Hank had passed on anything he regarded relevant to the people there, the refuelled Thirty Seven took off again, for the last short leg down to Bob Hope. They set Hank up with a hotel room close by and left him there to start going over the planes and copters, because he was there often enough to keep all his airport accesses current.

When they got back to El Castillo, Chuck and Sarah were looking more rested and mellow. Sarah was shaking her head about the fact Chuck said the Thirty One was a lot smoother ride than the Twenty Five, because it almost shook her fillings out when they opened it up, but Ellie wasn't about to ask her whether she was this excited because she'd actually flown the MiG past Mach 3 herself, or it was something else, because she _really_ didn't want to know the details if it was something else!

* * *

Roan was there, so he took them up for a tour of their new home. They used one of the new 'public' lifts because their offices weren't finished yet, with Roan stopping the lift on the ground floor to show them one of the new foyer areas that had been created, saying that these would obviously be staffed by Thebes people as he waved at the reception desk in the alcove beside the lift. The foyers on the ground floor had mainly been created out of Chuck and Anna's old offices, and they now opened into the Carmichael Industries and Noble House Consulting offices. He pointed out that this was why they'd had been moved out of their offices and apartments, to allow the foyers to be built on each level, and also to allow the elevators to be enlarged enough to serve as public lifts, adding that those apartments _would_ be recreated, they'd just be a little smaller than they were before. When Chuck asked where Anna and Lou would be he explained that Anna, Lou and the girls would be in the apartment above his offices so that they could use the private lift that came up to his side of the Keep. Chuck smiled when Sarah nodded, indicating that she was fine with that.

Roan demonstrated the concealable multi-factor authentication mechanisms for the lifts, saying that of course everyone's access to each level would be controlled individually, and took them up to the Keep (as the penthouse had been designated, being at the top of El Castillo, the Castle), and they saw it for the first time. Looking around, they were stunned and Chuck apologised to Uncle Roan for ever doubting him, because this was magical.

They started the tour with the formal lounge, because that was where they'd come up, this was a quite large, elegant room with flat screens on the walls, and they noted that all of the furniture sat on lockable rollers to allow it to be rearranged or moved out of the way quickly and easily for functions. Next came the formal kitchen, which was set up like a restaurant kitchen and clearly capable of catering for large functions, with the formal dining area which could easily handle forty or fifty people in front of it. Beyond the dining area and kitchens, there were ladies and gentlemen's toilets along one side (to serve the guests at functions), while a rather large games room/cinema room filled the space from the dining area to the corner, and there was another, quieter lounge area at the other end between the cinema room and the partition that closed off the private wing on that side. The other public elevator came up in this lounge area. Looking back through the entertainment wing they all agreed that yes…. this would be _quite_ enough to handle any functions they may want to have here.

As Roan led then into the private wing, which had similar access controls to the lift, he explained that _this_ was the Carmichael residential wing, but the Noble wing was a mirror image of it, except for a few details which were specific to each of them. The private wing started with a couple of light and airy guest rooms, which had spacious en-suites and built in wardrobes, then came a cosy informal kitchen/dining room, followed by an unusual guest bedroom with two beds, an ensuite that included a bath and a large walk in wardrobe that opened into the master bedroom. The rest of the private wing was made up of the master bedroom with a large bathroom and walk in wardrobe/dressing room, the large armour glass walled gym/work room looking out over the roof garden which had its own ensuite and kitchenette, and a spacious private lounge area between the rooms and the internal armour glass walls.

Oh, and the private elevator that came up outside the kitchen that went down through Anna and Lou's apartment and the bathroom of their executive offices to the Dungeon. Looking around their private wing, Chuck and Sarah decided that they'd be spending most of their time in here and it would be just right for them, though that massive 8' by 10' ultrabed and the jacuzzi bath and shower which could easily hold four people in their bathroom raised a few questions that they weren't sure that they wanted to ask, for fear of what the answers may be. Ellie and Rick were thinking the same thing.

* * *

Overall though, it was incredible, as was what they could see of the luscious roof garden and the pool that went across the other end of it, but this was of course part of the tour, so Roan led the way out into the roof garden… They stopped to look around and agreed that roof _park_ would be a better description, because while the first hundred feet or so between the residential wings was _only_ around seventy five feet wide, the four hundred or so feet from there to the pool structure was about a hundred and fifty feet wide.

Now they were outside, they had a better look at the spa pool built against the wall behind the toilets and kitchen that would take well over a dozen people comfortably, with change rooms (made of mirrored armour glass to blend in with the walls) with showers and toilets on either side and a bar and comfortable outdoor entertainment area in front. After deciding that they'd probably spend some time in that later, they turned around and began strolling towards the other end of El Castillo Jardines, noting as they went that the potted gardenia and rhododendron bushes and trees around the walls and dotted about the area were all hooked into automatic irrigation systems to keep them healthy, and that what had looked like grass from inside was actually a soft, lush green version of astro turf. Chuck remembered that his father had come up with something like this (or more to the point, he'd come up with _this_ ) a few of years ago and realised that the family must have either sold the rights or more likely started manufacturing it, but he'd been bouncing around the world on missions at the time and hadn't paid much attention to it. The two lifts and stairwells along the centreline that came up from the garage/storage area were still there, but they had been disguised as quaint little cabins with gardenias and rhododendrons around them to make them blend into the setting. There were also a few similar styled lightweight 11 x 13M shells on fat swivelling tyres that were big enough to cover the Loach, 109 or Lakotas but light enough to roll about easily, with doors at both ends and on one side to make it quick and easy to push them over the helicopters.

When they got down to the pool, they waited for Uncle Roan's explanation, they didn't have to wait long because he was quite proud of this. "Ah yes, _this_ is my pièce de résistance, the Crystal Palace! I was inspired by your innovative use of the armour glass your father created actually Charles because as you can see, it's all made out of armour glass. The pool itself is a hundred and fifteen feet long, thirty three feet wide and seven feet deep with clear armour glass walls and it's surrounded by a sixteen and a half foot wide mirrored armour glass deck on three sides. We decided that a deck along the outside would be superfluous, and this way those using the pool have a clear view out though the outside armour glass wall, as well as through the other sides…."

"The pool itself is floored with mirrored armour glass for added effect and it's sitting on a solid sixteen inch high base faced with mirrored armour glass, so there's nearly eight feet of clearance underneath the deck. The floor of the area underneath the deck is also made from mirrored armour glass. We have foot wide clear armour glass panels coming out from the pool walls every sixteen and a half feet around the pool to help support both the deck and the walls, with more of them mounted parallel to the edge every sixteen and a half feet along the outside edge of the deck on this side, overkill I know, but we wanted to make it as strong as possible.… There's also a three and a half foot high clear armour glass panel across this side of the deck to serve as a railing…. this is extended down the inside of each staircase and the mirror glass stair treads are supported by this and the outside glass. The cabins over there against the outside glass are change rooms with toilets and showers and we've also added three and a half foot high mirror glass fronted and topped bars under the stairs on both sides to make best use of the possibilities for entertaining, with tables and chairs down here and up on the deck. All of the change rooms have convertible sofas by the way so they could also be used as guest cabins too if you have the need."

They stood there with their arms around each other and apologised to Uncle Roan again for ever doubting him, and thanked him for creating this for them. With that, Uncle Roan said his goodbyes and each couple headed back to the residences to try out those deliciously decadent beds in their master bedrooms.

* * *

It was no great surprise that they couldn't avoid working on their so called honeymoon, Chuck and Ellie tried to get as much as possible of it done while Sarah and Rick were sleeping, but they still had to have video-conferences at least with the others during the day as well, so when Ellie told Sarah that she knew that Chuck wanted to talk to Hank while he was there about some plane related project that he wanted his input on (then she clarified that Hank had been their aircraft crew chief for over fourteen years now, ever since Auntie Di had tracked down the best one in the Air Force and got him assigned to her group to look after them), Sarah went to Chuck and told to get Hank down for that talk.

Hank flew the Loach in that night, because he'd flown their helicopters into El Castillo with night vision goggles more than a few times since they fitted the first stealth rotor to the Loach about a year and a half ago, but when they brought the lights up once he'd shut the Loach down and taken the night vision goggles off, he just stared about, not believing what he was seeing. The rooftop had always been huge, but it was about a hundred and fifty foot longer now, so even with that mirror glass mansion taking up one end and that structure…. was it a _pool?_ going right across the other end, there was almost as much free space as there'd been before, _more_ if you included the big area between the side wings of the mansion. And the rooftop was a beautiful _park_ now!

He was still looking around in stunned amazement when they walked down to greet him and Chuck said "Welcome to El Castillo Jardines!" with a laugh.

Hank shook his head and looked at Ellie. " _This_ is what you were talking about?"

Ellie nodded with a smile. "Well I guess you weren't too upset with Roan when you got home after all then?"

She shook her head with a laugh. "Not in the least! And you haven't seen inside yet!"

Turning to point at the Carmichael Wing, she went on. "That's Chuck and Sarah's home, but _that_..." turning to point at the Noble Wing "Is Rick and mine! What our spouses didn't tell us was that Uncle Roan asked them if they'd be happy with us all sharing the Keep just after when Rick and I decided to get married, and he's been building this ever since!"

Hank pointed to the Noble Wing. "If that's _your_ home, and that's _Chuck's_ home…." (pointing to the Carmichael Wing) "What's all the rest?"

Ellie laughed again. "Oh that's just the shared entertainment wing!"

Hank shook his head as he decided that his head was going to explode if they kept talking about this, so he turned to Chuck. "Chuck, Ellie told me that you want to talk to me about something Gulfstream has?"

Chuck nodded. "Yeah, let's just get the Loach covered up and we can go in." He looked at Rick and they walked to the nearest 'shed', each grabbing the handle on one of the corners and pushing. When they were about twenty foot away they stopped to open the doors and then pushed it over the 600, closing the doors again so that it was completely out of sight. It looked like they'd broken Hank again so Ellie laughed and took him by the arm to lead him towards the Keep, but he stopped and pointed back at the pool. "What _is_ that?"

Ellie laughed again. "Uncle Roan calls it the Crystal Palace because it's all made out of glass, it's a pool and outside entertainment area. I have to admit, it _is_ pretty incredible, you have to see it in the daylight, and have a swim in it as well while you're at it."

Hank just shook his head and let himself be led towards the mansion, not noticing that Rick had picked up his bag.

Chuck led the way to his and Sarah's workroom, and brought up the designs, specs and pictures of what he wanted to talk about on the screens of the workstation he'd been using, but Hank had been distracted by all the certificates, medals, pictures and _flags_ on display above the screens which they had left visible when it was just them there, so he had to spend a while answering questions about them first.

Sarah had come in with them, because she wanted to hear what this was about too, and she was both amused and touched when the Crew Chief wandered from looking at Chuck's achievements onto her's and suddenly checked himself with an apology when he realised. "Oh I'm sorry Ma'am, I shouldn't have looked at your display without asking!"

She shook her head. "Feel free Crew Chief, I know you'll keep whatever you see to yourself, and it's Sarah to family, which from what Ellie tells me, you _are_!"

"Thank you Sarah, and it's _Hank_ to the family!"

Now that he'd been given leave to look, he did so with interest, and his eyes widened as he realised that Chuck, or rather Mowgli in this context, had found himself a good match in his little lady. He didn't hold to the notion that the Distinguished Intelligence Cross was at the same level as the Medal of Honor, but he _was_ quite prepared to accept it as the equivalent of the Distinguished Service Cross or Navy Cross, and he was willing to bet just about everything he had that she was just about the only woman to get one, and she had an Intelligence Star as well, so she'd certainly seen serious action and distinguished herself there. He knew some of the men who'd certified her on aircraft and signed off on her special operations training as well, and you had to be damned good to get _them_ to sign you off, especially a woman! Considering that she couldn't have seen as much action as Mowgli (he was damned sure that _no-one_ had seen as much action as him in the last ten years, with all the missions the General sent him on), what Sarah, no, Shanti here, had earned was damned impressive.

Sarah was surprised to find that the approval of this man who Ellie and Chuck obviously cared about and held in high regard actually meant quite a bit to her, and he read her thanks in the smile she gave him. He gave her a 'you'll do!' nod, and then went back to what Chuck had wanted to talk to him about.

* * *

It wasn't long before he was as tied up in it as Chuck was, because what Chuck had found was a G Five SP that Gulfstream had modified to use as a flying testbed for the wings for the next generation planes they were developing now, the G Six. The figures they were showing for these new wings were damned impressive, and they could obviously carry a lot more fuel than the G Five's wings too, but in the end he shook his head.

"It looks like they've made major changes to the airframe to fit those wings Chuck. I dare say it'd take a hell of a lot more work than converting the G Five airframe to the G Five SP like we did and the Thirty Seven's too good a plane to risk hacking it up like that, especially without the technical information we'd need to get it right…. But if you could get _that_ airframe off Gulfstream and have it built up with the new wings, I'd say that it'd probably be worth selling your existing Thirty Seven, because this should make a better plane, faster and with longer range."

Chuck nodded musingly. "If we could get that airframe once all the testing is done, that's certainly an option I'd be interested in... but I don't think I'd sell our Thirty Seven if we did Hank, like you said it's a good plane and our group keeps getting bigger and more active, so if we _can_ get this airframe and have it built up, we'll keep that one here and the existing Thirty Seven can be based in Austin so that they have faster and more comfortable transport on hand. I've heard that Gulfstream are working with Rolls Royce to get a new engine created for the G Six that's more powerful and more efficient as well, so hopefully by the time they finish using the airframe as a flying test bed, we'll be able to get _both_ of our C Thirty Sevens updated to the new engines and the new fly by wire systems they're working on for the G Six... Oh yeah, can you see if you can find a few airframes that are suitable to make into Wagons and get three more built up for us please? Auntie Di wasn't too happy with the last Air Force transport she had to take, but from what Anna said she _did_ like flying the Propfan, and she and our other people in DC will be better off with transport of their own. One of the Wagons will be for the Dallas crowd because they need more transport down there, and so do we so if we upgrade to a couple of Wagons here, our Twenty Eight can go to DC for them."

Hank chuckled, as it was always fun to see Chuck getting excited like this, and he agreed that a U-28 for their people in DC and extra planes in Dallas and here would be a good idea. It would be easier to just build more Propfan PC Twelves but the Wagon _was_ a better plane and he could see how having the greater capacity of the Wagons would be useful. He glanced at Sarah and she was smiling fondly at Chuck's enthusiasm too. He held up a finger to quieten Chuck as he pulled out his phone to call a friend who was an engineer at Gulfstream.

Twenty minutes he signed off the call and looked at Chuck with a smile. "Okay, they're talking about scrapping that airframe once the wing testing is finished, so if you want it…." he held up a hand to forestall the response he knew was coming "which I know you _do_ , I'd say that the best approach would be to send Old Silver Tongue to talk to them now, while they're still using it as a test bed and planning to scrap it, and do a deal for us to buy it from them _now_ , with the agreement that they will build it up for us with the new wings, engines and fly by wire systems once the testing's done, and include upgrading the engines and fly by wire systems on our existing Thirty Seven in that deal. That should stop them abusing it too much in further testing and they'll probably use it to accelerate the engine and fly by wire systems testing and development too then, because they'll see it as an opportunity to use it for all their early testing then clean it up and give it to us, so we're offsetting the cost of their development. I doubt that Roan would have any trouble convincing them that it will be a good marketing ploy to have something that's identified as the functional equivalent of their new plane flying around showing what it can do to build up interest for a couple of years before it's released, especially seeing that we already did that for them with the G Five Fifty."

He'd hardly finished speaking before Chuck grabbed his phone and asked Uncle Roan to come up.

Hank saw Sarah shaking her head at Chuck with a fond smile and leant over to whisper. "Just be glad that he understands that it'll probably take Gulfstream years to get this new design finished, otherwise he'd be wanting to get his hands on the new jet straight away..."

Sarah flashed a smile at him, thinking that he obviously knew Chuck pretty well, that smile widening when Chuck turned around indignantly, saying. "Hey! Right here you know!"

She leant over to kiss him. "Are you trying to tell me that Hank's wrong about that Chuck?"

"Nooooo, okay, I'll admit that I can't wait to get my hands on this…. but I still don't think that _Uncle_ Hank was being fair, putting it like that!"

She laughed and kissed him again, wrapping her arms around him.

* * *

She kept her arm around him as she asked Hank. "Just how are our helicopters so quiet Hank? They're much quieter than any other copters I've heard."

Hank smiled, because he loved to talk technical details as much as Chuck did, and he appreciated the way she'd accepted him as part of the family. "I presume that Chuck's filled you in on the background, but I've been working with our people in Raccoon City up at Plant Forty Two on and off for about ten years now on a project to reduce the acoustic signature of military helicopters, focussing on the Little Birds as they're most often in the situations where it matters. Part of the noise reduction comes from using an asymmetric Fenestron tail rotor…. That's the shrouded fan in the tail…. to replace the exposed tail rotor, because that gets rid of most of the tail rotor noise, but even more work has been done on reducing the acoustic signature of the main rotor. Well the Six Hundred didn't have a tail rotor to start with, it was originally using something called a NOTAR system, it's basically a big arse fan pushing a lot of air out one side of the tail boom. It works, and it's quieter than a normal tail rotor, but it's big and heavy and not very efficient, so we pulled it all off and built an improved titanium versions of the Little Bird's transmissions with better bearings to reduce drag that was more than strong enough to handle the full power of the Six Hundred's bigger turbine to drive the main rotor and tail rotor shaft. We used the Fenestron tail rotor to cut down the tail rotor noise, and built a skinnier, lightweight carbon fibre tail boom for it, but we shaped the boom like a vertical airfoil to make use of the base principle of the NOTAR boom and save a bit more power, we replaced a number of panels with carbon fibre at the same time to drop more weight. It did a better job and all up it saved four or five hundred pounds and over fifty horsepower so the Six Hundred was a little faster and a lot more nimble with better range. It worked so well that we converted our One Oh Nine to a Fenestron tail rotor too, it didn't give quite as much of an improvement there but it still it quieter and more nimble, improved its looks too in my opinion, so we did the same with the EuroMil when we got it. Our Six Hundred already had the Fenestron tail rotor and was close to the Little Bird's size and weight, so we used it for the testing when our engineers came up with a shorter seven blade rotor with thinner composite rotor blades and asymmetric spacing early last year. The stealth rotor reduced the acoustic signature quite a lot, but we found that it _also_ impacted the performance quite a bit, so the engineers modified the Six hundred's FADEC to allow its full power to be used. The tail rotor drive and transmission we created for it had also freed up more power to go to the main rotor and with those changes the Six Hundred could more than match its own or the Little Bird's original performance in full stealth mode, but you lost range due to having to use extra power to counter the reduced lift of the rotor blades."

"As a work around for that problem, they redesigned the stealth rotor and Fenestron hubs so that the rotor blade spacing could be quickly changed between symmetrical and asymmetrical in the field. That way that it could be in symmetric mode for better performance on the transport leg, and then be switched to asymmetric mode to quieten it for the final approach, but it still lost range and performance because of the reduced lift from the thinner main rotor blades. With thicker rotor blades, we found that the stealth rotor can actually _improve_ the performance and range in symmetric mode, but they make the acoustic signature bigger in asymmetric mode so the stealth aspect suffers."

"When they added the ability to change between symmetrical to asymmetrical in the field, they also worked in the capability to fold the blades right back for storage. The Navy consultant on the team brought that up first in regard to shipboard storage, but one of the other guys pointed out that it could be even more useful for allowing the helicopters to be airlifted into forward support positions and then rapidly deployed, as one C Seventeen could fly in an entire strike team, complete with up to half a dozen Little Birds, and they could be on their way within half an hour or so of the plane touching down. Being able to fit it all into one load would also mean that they could get the C Seventeen in and out of a forward airstrip without having to rebuild it. Unfortunately we couldn't let others know that we had something far better than the C Seventeens for that because we need to keep our AN Seventies a secret, but the idea was a stroke of genius and the rest of us were wondering why the hell we'd never thought of it before, so we made damned sure that we had it working by the time the revisions to the stealth rotor hub were done."

"Once we'd proven the concept with our Six Hundred, we confirmed it by repeating the exercise with our two Little Birds, using the higher rated turbines from the Five Thirty Fs to get the extra power we needed for them to perform in stealth mode. The Army panel overseeing helicopter development projects of this nature questioned the sanity of most of our core ideas... reconfiguring the rotor blades in the field, modifying the FADEC to use the turbine's full power, using an unproven transmission in a Little Bird _and_ fitting a higher rated turbine into the Little Bird, even though we just bolted in compatible higher rated Two Fifty turbines from another Five Hundred variant, so our proposal to use all of them _together_ just about gave them apoplexy. They were determined to stick with the normal Little Bird variants anyway, so they rejected the improved transmission, Fenestron boom and tail, reconfigurable rotor and bigger turbine proposals out of hand. The only piece of the project that they approved to continue was the original fixed seven blade asymmetric rotor, but with the thicker rotor blades. While they officially rejected most of our proposals though, we left our helicopters configured with the stealth components, so _we_ had three fully functional stealth helicopters that performed quite well!"

"The reason we have the Lakotas is that the Army selected the EC One Forty Five for its new Light Utility Helicopter soon after that. We knew that Eurocopter were already using a Fenestron tail rotor on their slightly smaller but similar One Thirty Five, and they were working on an updated Fenestron tail rotor variant of the One Forty Five as well. Chuck and Roan went to France and talked Eurocopter into selling them a couple of the new One Forty Five Fenestron tails and the uprated turbines and FADEC and glass cockpits they were using, picking up a couple of beaten up early One Forty Fives cheap while they were over there because they got them for less than a quarter of what they would have cost us here. We compared the existing open tail rotor parts to the Fenestron tail rotor parts, confirming that they were a straight swap, as were the turbines and FADEC."

"We thought that having the uprated turbines and FADEC and Fenestron tail rotor being manufacturer parts would have been enough to get past their arguments against using _unproven_ parts, so we fitted the uprated turbines and FADEC and glass cockpit and built stealth rotors for the the One Forty Fives they picked up, along with a shorter and lighter Fenestron tail with less aerodynamic and mechanical drag to go with it, and they exceeded all the targets they'd set for stealth helicopters. We were confident that stealth One Forty Fives using mostly factory parts would be enough to prove to them that we could turn their new Light Utility Helicopters into fully functional stealth helicopters that could carry almost as much inside as a Black Hawk…. But the old fools on the panel just refused to look at them, so we just use the Lakotas as extra helicopters, luckily they're quite useful little helicopters... Though from what Ellie told me on the plane, the stealth Lakotas and Little Birds should get looked at by SOCOM now, after the show you lot put on at your wedding."

"Our Lakotas are a lot lighter now because we've built much stronger improved titanium transmissions and carbon fibre tail booms like the Loach and Little Birds' for them and replaced a lot more parts with titanium and carbon fibre since then. We did the same with the One Oh Nine and EuroMil, just to prove that we could, and replaced a few more on the Loach and Little Birds as well, to improve their performance and range. We have all the equipment at Raccoon City to build whatever we need, all we need is time and materials and when the Army rejected our proposals we had plenty of time to improve them, and the EuroMil. We've also built new components, wings, tails and fuselage panels for our Twenty Eights and Wagons, new tails, panels and components for the Seventies and One Twenty Two and that full sized cargo door we added to our Thirty Seven. I don't know why Gulfstream doesn't offer them on the Five Fifty airframe, they're damned useful for groups like us."

"We normally keep the Loach configured in full stealth mode because it's mostly used to fly in and out of here so the reduced performance and range isn't an issue, but we have the thicker rotor blades back at the hangar and they can be swapped in for other uses. We also came up with a way to carry one set of rotor blades attached to the skid supports, so you can have increased performance in transport mode and full stealth in approach mode, it just takes another hour or so to swap the rotor blades. The Little Birds are normally in transport mode because they're used around Dallas and the Lakotas are normally left in transport mode because even though they'll carry almost as much inside as a Black Hawk, they're only about half the size and weight, which makes them fun to fly because with the thicker rotor blades and lighter weight, just over half the power is quite enough to make them faster than the Black Hawks, and a lot more nimble too. So are the One Oh Nine and EuroMil, and even though the EuroMil is the size and weight of the Black Hawk on the outside, and it'll carry over twice as much inside. Actually with the extra power they have the One Oh Nine and EuroMil are faster than just about any other helicopters, any production ones anyway, because the EuroMil can use fifty percent more power than any other MI Thirty Eight with our transmissions and FADEC modifications, and the One Oh Nine is almost twice as powerful now because we uprated its turbines to the same ones we put in the Lakotas."

Sarah smiled at him, she could see why Chuck liked and respected Hank, because he was down to earth and smart, and almost as fanatical about their toys as Chuck was.

* * *

Roan had arrived soon after Hank started and was listening with interest, because he'd never heard the subject discussed in this much detail before. When Hank finished, he and Chuck explained what they wanted him to do. Thinking about what he'd just heard about their helicopters' stealth systems (contrary to popular opinion, he wasn't a buffoon, and he was quite interested in this technical information), he asked what the benefits of getting this airframe would be, so Hank explained how the new wing was designed to be more efficient at higher speeds so the plane would have a faster cruising speed and more range, and that it would also hold at least ten percent more fuel for even greater range. Chuck also told him about the new engines they were working on that were more powerful and efficient as well, so combined with the new wings they could have a faster, much longer range plane to get around in. He also repeated what he'd said to Hank about wanting to keep the current Thirty Seven if they did build a new plane on this airframe, so that more of their people would have transport available, but that he'd like to upgrade their Thirty Seven to the new engines and systems too.

Roan nodded thoughtfully, he could see why Chuck (and Hank) wanted this airframe, and Hank's arguments about pitching it to Gulfstream as it being a good teaser for their new jet and a way to offset their development costs were certainly valid, but Chuck's plan to keep their current Thirty Seven and upgrade it as well would help cinch the deal, because he could point out to Gulfstream that not only would there be one less second hand G-550 out there to cost them the sale of a new plane, they'd _also_ be getting paid to upgrade their existing G-550's engines and systems too. What Hank was saying about having everything they need to fabricate things at Raccoon City also offered another angle that could work for them. He didn't see himself having much trouble getting this locked in on good terms for them (especially if they paid up front and he played on the fear of this brewing financial crisis to push the price down!) while having Gulfstream seeing this as _them_ doing Gulfstream a favour, yes, this should work out quite well!

He nodded again and said that he'd set up a meeting with Gulfstream, but he was confident that he'd be able to get them to agree to what they were after. Then he asked Chuck what was the absolute limit he was prepared to go to for this and whether he could offer the services of Raccoon City to sweeten the deal.

Chuck looked at Hank and at his thoughtful nod said. "Yes, so long as it doesn't interfere with our other operations we can fabricate components for the test beds at Raccoon City, but we won't do anything for their production aircraft, and you can go up to Forty Million to get the new engines, avionics, fly by wire systems and controls, preferably the side sticks they're working on in parallel with the yokes, and interiors, for _both_ planes. Talk them down as much as you can but let them think they've won so they're motivated to give us what we want."

Roan beamed as Chuck showed how well he had taken on board what he'd been taught about working people, but he was sure that even with that caveat he could beat that figure down by quite a bit, but Hank blinked at the way Chuck threw that figure out. He knew that they had access to serious money from what they'd spent on aircraft and Raccoon City over the last ten years or so (and this place, he thought as he looked around), but dropping a figure like that so casually? He just shook his head.

Just then, Ellie came over to get them for dinner, adding Roan when she saw him, as there was enough for one more. They had a pleasant dinner, then Ellie trumped Chuck by saying that they'd already made up a room for Hank, and telling Hank that his bag was already in there when he started to say that he had to go get it, so he was their guest for the night.

* * *

When he got up in the morning, Hank went down to have a look at this Crystal Palace. It certainly was impressive, a hundred and fifty foot long glass structure that was mainly using mirror glass for the horizontal and clear glass for the vertical surfaces. He sat down at one of the (glass) tables underneath the deck to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere, and Ellie and Rick came to say good morning before they went up to dive into the pool. Watching them doing laps and playing about in the pool, and Ellie stopping to wave with a grin when she passed him, he could certainly see the appeal of this design, and what a stunning sight Ellie was in a bikini too.

Yes, he'd have to say that Roan's Crystal Palace was certainly a success, in fact everything he'd done up here was amazing… he turned back to look across the garden to the Keep… that had seemed strange at first until they reminded him that it was on top of El Castillo, the castle…. and the effect looking that way was similar because all the walls at that end were mirrored glass too. The Keep didn't go much higher than the perimeter glass walls, so aside from it being about a third longer, El Castillo wouldn't look that different from the outside. On the inside though… he shook his head, on the inside it was an estate fit for the fabulously wealthy, while remaining comfortable for the people who lived here, it was an incredible job. He also thought that those mobile hangars were a great touch, anyone flying over would think they were quaint little cabins that had been put there for atmosphere, but Chuck and Rick had shown how quick and easy it was to get the Loach or Lakota completely out of sight with them, ingenious!

While it was nice, being there with them, he knew that they were trying to enjoy what little honeymoon the General was prepared to let them have, and he had other jobs that he'd been pulled away from when he was thrown on that B-1B as well, so when Ellie and Rick got out of the pool he went back up to the Keep with them, to say goodbye to them all and head down to get a lift back to the airport.


	15. Now You See It

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

One of Ellie's key marriage preparations had been giving her notice at the Westside Medical Centre, citing personal and professional disagreements with some of the other doctors. Devon (they stopped calling him Jethro when Skip kicked him out) had actually proven helpful here, because he provided Ellie with a way to do that without too many questions being asked.

Skip had finally gotten sick of Devon's stupid and irritating comments, continuing with the act of chasing women all the time in public to pretend that he was a lady's man and wanting to know where he was whenever he went anywhere (it hadn't taken much effort to prove Carina correct when she pointed out that someone who's playing around all the time is more likely to expect that their partners are), so he'd kicked him out and locked him out of the complex. Devon had turned up with a group of his old frat buddies soon after that to set Skip straight (IE: Beat on him until he gave in and took him back.), but the complex security kept them waiting outside until a couple of carloads of the biggest, meanest looking guys from Thebes turned up to tell them that if they didn't stop bothering their friends, there was going to be serious trouble. Apparently most of Devon's friends were much like him (thick as a brick), because faced with obviously dangerous men like these, they came in swinging, _baseball bats_ , which just made it worse. Of course the cops came when the ambulances were called, but they'd videoed the whole thing from several angles so it was quite clear that they had merely been defending themselves, and Roan turned up soon after as the lawyer for Thebes Security (he was staying at El Castillo to oversee the construction of the Keep, so he just waited a while after the boys left then headed out in the SLR to do his part).

He told the officers that any unjust charges or comments made to the press in regard to any Thebes Security personnel would have the Los Angeles Police Department tied up in a lawsuit that it couldn't win, and with what that would cost the city, he didn't see much chance of them keeping their jobs. They took in his Armani suit and the Mercedes SLR he'd arrived in, and decided that they weren't about to risk their jobs over some idiot frat boys who had been dumb enough to attack a group of dangerous looking characters for no good reason with baseball bats _on camera_ , so they just politely asked for a copy of those videos for their report before they left.

Of course, after that Devon decided that Ellie owed him and told her that he was moving in with her and she was going to do whatever he said to convince everyone that they were a happy couple or her friends would be charged with assault and anything else they could think of. That was when Ellie put in her notice, because that discussion had been in the doctors' lounge and while no-one actually heard much of what was said it was quite obvious that he was threatening her and trying to force her into doing something that she didn't want to do. By their wedding day, no-one knew what had happened to Eleanor Bartowski, because even if people managed to get into the complex, Yuri was living in her old apartment now and told anyone who asked that the real estate agent had said that the woman who'd lived there had disappeared to get away from her stalker ex, something that was corroborated by the others living there, just as they said that Mike and Tara had been living in Skip's apartment for years.

* * *

Westside had never been anything but a dead end that was forced on Eleanor Bartowski by the idiots at the Cover Bureau anyway, Ellie had gotten into medicine to try and find a way to help her father, but she was getting nowhere with that. Eleanora _Zaleska_ had graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard Medical School ( _and_ magna cum laude from Harvard Law and Business Schools with the same joint JD/MBA degrees as Sarah did, a few years earlier), and that was enough to get her into the Department of Neurology at the University of California Irvine's School of Medicine, which had the best Neurology research program in Los Angeles in a research capacity, but she was starting to wonder whether she would get much further with them.

Talking this over with Chuck and the others, they pointed out that she could do everything but physically study patients right there in El Castillo, and even that would be possible if she really needed to. They also pointed out that she already had half the facilities she needed for a world class research facility in the Dungeon's medical centre, and they could get her whatever else she wanted or needed. What's more, they had far better facilities for computer modelling than any medical facility, as well as the only viable test subjects for the specific field she was looking into. She couldn't argue with Auntie Em's other point either, that the brain trust that was her family was almost certainly better than anything she could possibly find anywhere else so it just didn't make sense to shackle herself into 'doing her time' at something like UCI, going through the same old outmoded clinical processes and requirements that had nothing to do with what she wanted to find an answer to. She could be working with the best people in the world virtually, and if she needed to work face to face, she could take the Thirty Seven and that would get her just about anywhere in the world with one or two fuel stops. That was why the El Castillo Neurological Research Facility was created.

Of course, she did have to put her foot down and tell Auntie Di that she wasn't going to devote _all_ the hours she'd been spending at the Medical Centre to Special Projects work now, she _was_ going to have at least three or four hours a day to work on her research! After all that was what they'd created the research facility for! While Diane wanted to argue that the Special Projects work was more important than research at the moment, she _did_ want Stephen fixed as well, and more importantly…. She knew that she'd lose most, if not _all_ of them if she tried that. If that happened the legacy of the country's elite intelligence and special operations group that she was working to create would be finished, so she bit her tongue.

That was why Eleanor Bartowski effectively ceased to exist, and when they came back after their 'honeymoon', Eleanora Noble took up residence in her office as the CEO of Noble House Consulting, with her Principal Consultants Emmeline Boudreaux and Marie Lestrange sitting on either side. On the other side of the building, Sarah Carmichael occupied the centre office as the CEO of Carmichael Industries, with Anna Wang as her Chief Operating Officer on one side and her husband Charles Carmichael as its Chief Technology Officer on the other.

* * *

As soon as he got back to Raccoon City, Hank started calling around his buddies to find a few PC-12 airframes that were sound where they needed to be straight away, ordered half a dozen more propfans and started the boys on building the props, wings, tails, fuselage panels and other parts they'd need for them. A couple of months later, they sent the new Wagons to Pilatus to get them updated, fitted out as a PC-12Ms and registered as Pilatus prototypes. As they were the same as the first two Wagons (they'd built the second one for Pilatus to use to get type certification, just as they'd used the second Propfan for type certification and then cleaned it up and gave it back), this was a relatively simple process.

By the time Chuck's Twenty Eight had been freed up to be delivered to DC, Diane had the all requisite arrangements in place to have it housed and maintained at Andrews Air Force Base. That went smoothly because many of the influential people at Andrews held to the belief that Air Force Officers (even Generals) _should_ be fliers, so having Old Ironpants keeping her personal transport plane there on the base and flying it herself was something that they heartily approved of. Besides, while it may not be as fancy as some of the aircraft her people flew, they knew that it was a fast and interesting plane because the Air Force had bought a few of those new Propfan models when they became available six months ago to serve as C-21A replacements.

They knew this particular plane anyway, because the Special Projects people had been flying it in various guises for years. The fact that it had been converted into a Propfan at least a year before Pilatus released them (the conversion wasn't hard to spot, because the nose being a foot shorter than the normal PC Twelve's was almost as noticeable as the two sets of props) was interesting though, and it made them wonder whether Pilatus would be releasing that other stretched and modified PC Twelve Propfan the Special Projects people had too. Those who'd known them well enough to get to look it over hoped so, because that was one _seriously_ interesting plane, as fast as a Propfan but with more capacity than of a Skytruck.

* * *

As Ellie had predicted, Chuck, Hank and the others had meetings with SOCOM and the other Special Operations groups about their stealth helicopters a couple of weeks after the wedding. It was a done deal that they'd be getting orders from these groups, the only unknown was how long it would take them to get the budget approvals to proceed, so they began organising what they'd need to produce the parts for the conversions. The first things Chuck did were to finish the process to buy the back to back hangars which made up the 2/3 width strip right down one side of the hangar Raccoon City was in (he'd been working on this for a while but hadn't been in a hurry, which helped drive the price down), and place priority orders for the specialised multi-million dollar fabrication equipment they'd need for the large scale precision production of titanium and carbon fibre components. At the very least they'd need a couple of hundred sets of the components to do the stealth conversions, but he knew that it would be more than that all up and the terms of the contracts included very harsh penalty clauses if all units ordered weren't delivered within six months of the agreement, so they needed to be able to guarantee that they could get all the components fabricated in that time frame. The Eighty odd Million that he invested into the additional property, plant and equipment was more than the penalties would have of course (not that much more though, when he had the time he'd be making sure he found out who it was who had this vendetta against them and deal with them), but this way they had two thirds more space and the equipment to fabricate just about anything needed, which would be of use to them down the track.

Getting the 145s they used for the trial as cheap as they did prompted Chuck to look into expanding on this, and as 'The Diplomat' (This was the arms dealer persona he'd created for the mission where he got their F-5s in Ninety Eight and had maintained since then for interactions with people in that world. The name came from the fact that he'd told people who questioned why he wasn't picked up with the others that he had diplomatic immunity because he was effectively operating under a Letter of Marque from the leaders of the his country. The kicker was that that was effectively true because he had insisted on having formal documentation authorising him to do this before he'd do anything when Auntie Di first told him to do it on an operation in Ninety Four, and that documentation had been formally, if unofficially, ratified when the current President came into office.), he called on his contacts around the Middle East to locate and buy up whatever inoperable EC145s with sound airframes that they could get really cheap as soon as the SOCOM Commander and others confirmed that they'd be getting the stealth helicopters. He also told them to pick up good MD530 and MD600 airframes and wrecked EC145, AS365 and MD530 airframes with the latest avionics if they could be had really cheap. No-one asked why, as they'd heard stories about what happened to people who crossed the Diplomat, they just presumed that he had a really big order to supply helicopters to someone and had a source for cheap turbines for them, so the helicopters would probably be fixed, cleaned up and passed off to his client in quick order.

As he'd expected, there were plenty of these helicopters laying about the Middle East, because being flush with oil money tended to make them careless of their toys so there were hundreds of helicopters that had just been discarded and left where they were when they failed. Hell, there were hundreds of helicopters operating and that was only a fraction of what had been discarded. They probably could have just picked them up (and he was sure that they did in many cases, but he required paperwork to show that they'd all been legitimately purchased so they usually took the easy way out and paid a token to the owners to salve their egos and get the paperwork they needed). As soon as his contacts let him know that they'd managed to scrape together twenty eight structurally sound but inoperable EC145s to make up a full plane load for Andre, Chuck flew to Israel to pick them up. Eight more plane loads of helicopters in a similar state over the next six months pretty much cleaned out all of the EC145 hulks and the cleanest of the dead MD530s and 600s that could be found in the region. Chuck's spotters were still looking for more like them, but by then they'd picked up every EC145 they could get cheap so they didn't expect to be able to find any more than one or two a month after that. They got those helicopters dirt cheap (around Forty Four Million plus around Three Quarters of a Half Million in fuel costs etc all up to get a hundred and thirty eight 145s with sound airframes and another sixty that were damaged but probably repairable, plus forty three good MD530 airframes, eleven good MD600 airframes and the turbines, transmissions and avionics from the remains of another fifty four late model 145s or 365s and forty six late model MD 530s), because most of them had had their turbines, transmissions and other major components destroyed by flying them in sand storms and their owners had no use for them, but the airframes were all they really wanted. Chuck took the sixty damaged EC145 airframes and the MD530s and MD600s mainly to make up a full load for the plane and to stock up on the uprated turbines because the Army had committed to covering the cost of upgrading the Lakotas and Little Birds to the uprated turbines for the duration of this first conversion contract (he added the wrecked 145s, 365s and 530s and their Little Birds, Lakotas and Stingray to that to get another fifty seven spare sets of turbines for the Stealth Lakotas and fifty eight spare Stealth Little Bird turbines), so any of the damaged EC145 airframes that could be repaired and used for the conversions would be a bonus.

The ones Chuck bought the helicopters through had shipped them to Eilat in Israeli via circuitous routes. From there they were trucked a short way into the desert to a kibbutz that was actually a clandestine IDF base. This base had an air strip that was big enough for the 122 (just) and its commander knew Lou, Chuck and John, so they would be able to work in peace there while they stripped the helicopters down and loaded them into the plane. As they'd seen all too often over the past five years, taking Bertha, Boris or Andre into public airports wasted far too much of their time because everyone wanted to ask about them, so an out of the way air base like that was the best way to do what they had to and be on their way.

* * *

It would be easier when the An-70 and An-122 were certified and in production, because then they wouldn't need to keep quiet about them, but under the terms of the agreement Chuck signed with Antonov, they'd be kept as much of a secret as possible until they went into production, and that was looking like it was at least a year away. Antonov built another An-70 prototype with the original twin tail and wider fuselage and an An-122 prototype to begin testing soon after he showed them the proof that the Russians had only been trying to stop them using those designs to sabotage them, but they wanted to keep them under wraps until they went into production to prevent anyone stealing their designs again.

Chuck had been happy to sign those agreements because they got Antonov's official (and legal) commitment that the Antonov prototypes in their possession were irrevocably theirs out of it, along with the paperwork from the Ukrainian government that they needed to register and operate Bertha, Boris and Andre around the world. With Hank and the others' agreement, he committed to sharing developments that they came up with which improved the performance of the 70 and 122. They'd made a similar agreement with Mil, as luckily Mil had enough government connections to get them the paperwork they needed to register the Mi-38 as a factory prototype on the quiet. He'd also invested a few hundred million in Antonov over the last five years to help them along with the development and certification, because he knew that that investment would pay off when they got these planes to market.

* * *

With everyone pitching in, it didn't take more than a day to strip the helicopters they were taking down, mount them on the frames that had been made for the purpose in Racoon City and load them into Andre. Turbines, transmissions and other heavy items were wrapped up and secured on the floor inside the helicopter bodies to keep the weight low and they'd managed to squeeze in six rows of three airframes side by side, with five more more rows of two filling the gaps between the rows of three. They also stripped down the parts airframes, packing up the parts and loading them onto the plane. The base Commander took the wrecked airframes for his people to use as cover and target practice in their training exercises, so they actually served a purpose. When they were shot up too much to be be usable any more, they were cut up and disposed of.

While the cargo bay was full though, they were only carrying about fifty long tons, so the flight home was easy….. Dealing with Auntie Di when they got home was a different matter altogether though, because she went ballistic when Chuck suddenly disappeared and flew off to Israel in Andre with Anna, Lou and the girls (because Lou's mother was coming down to see them), and John, Sarah, Zondra, Hank and a crew to dismantle the 145s and haul them back to the States, and she'd been stewing over it ever since she found out that they were gone.

When she finally stopped to draw breath, Chuck managed to point out that, aside from the extra stealth helicopters they wanted for their own group, they stood to make _at least_ five or six million profit on each of these One Forty Fives they brought in as Stealth Lakotas when they were converted and sold, more if they could get the uprated turbines and such they needed cheap, and they'd make two or three million on the Five Hundreds and Six Hundreds as Stealth Little Birds as well. She'd looked at him calculatingly and asked how many he was planning to keep for their group, obviously running the potential numbers through her head.

"None from of this plane load as we need to fill the orders first, we'll take some of the ones that are coming. I doubt that we'll have any trouble selling however many we get, and this load alone should net us somewhere between a hundred and forty and a hundred and ninety million clear."

She grudgingly conceded that this was a good plan and let the matter drop after another dig about the fact that he should have cleared it with her before he took the 122 and their crew out of the country.

* * *

It was easy to add most of the parts for the rest of the 145s, 500s and 600s to what they creating for the military, because the SOCOM commander and others had seen the value in their improved transmissions and the like so they overrode the original panel's rulings on that, and they'd had to set up production lines to be able to build enough parts to convert over seventy Lakotas and thirty Little Birds into stealth helicopters for the military alone. It only took the special operations groups and Department of Justice a couple of months to get the budgets approved and sign the contracts to start getting the Lakotas and Little Birds converted, but that was enough time to get the extra hangars and equipment, set up the production lines and hire the extra people they needed to cover the workload. They'd already started converting the first of the ones they picked up by the time the contracts were signed.

As each plane load of dead helicopters came in, Chuck inserted another twenty eight uprated turbines or sets of uprated turbines into the applicable orders with Turbomeca and Allison, because the Army was taking _all_ the turbines and transmissions removed from the helicopters in the initial conversion run no questions asked to be used as spare parts and absorbing the upgrade costs from the normal to uprated turbines and the improved transmissions..… This was because the Army brass were just rubber stamping everything to avoid another reaming like the one they got from everyone over the way their people overseeing the project had refused to allow even a proper demonstration of the stealth helicopters' capabilities. The fact that the heads of all four services (along with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force) actually saw the capabilities of these stealth helicopters with their own eyes before the ones who were supposedly overseeing the project for the military did had been rather embarrassing for the Army, to say the least.

All the turbines, transmissions and such that they'd pulled out of the two hundred and ninety helicopters used for stealth conversions and hundred picked up for parts as at the end of the Stealth Helicopter Conversion contract had been shipped off to the Army as part of the deal to cover upgrade costs. They _were_ using the Army more than a little there but Chuck was still pissed off about those jumped up idiots on the Army oversight panel's refusal to give any real consideration to what they submitted (after they'd invested most of the Two Hundred and Fifty odd Million and ten years of effort that went into Raccoon City in the property, plant and equipment needed to set up and run the stealth project _for_ them and fabricate the components for the Stealth Helicopters), so he decided that a little pay back was in order while he had them over a barrel, Fifty or Sixty Million wouldn't break the Army, they wasted far more than that every month by refusing to get their house in order. Due to the fact that the orders added up to about five hundred and fifty uprated Turbomeca Arriel turbines and a hundred Allison C250s, with the expectation of more orders down the track, the Army had gotten the uprated turbines almost at cost anyway, which effectively meant that there _was_ no upgrade cost for these turbines, and all but a fifth or so of the turbines and transmissions pulled out of the helicopters could be rebuilt anyway. In fact the existing Army Lakotas and Little Birds that were being used in the stealth conversion program had been selected _because_ they needed expensive turbine and transmission overhauls after operating in Iraq, and even the Army had taken advantage of the offer to buy converted Stealth Lakotas and Little Birds from Raccoon City for five of the two dozen Stealth Lakotas and ten of the fifteen Stealth Little Birds they were getting, so no-one questioned turbines and transmissions coming back flagged as needing overhauls.

They were delivering the Stealth Lakotas and Stealth Little Birds as they were completed and tested, and as Chuck expected this resulted in more orders when people saw what they were capable of. He told his spotters in the Middle East to keep looking for more airframes because as he said to Auntie Di, he was pretty sure they could sell as many as they could make, in time if not as part of the original contracts. In fact they already had more foreign orders waiting on government clearances to sell the stealth helicopters to them. That was why he was picking up those extra airframes for parts, to stock up on the spare turbines etc they needed for future orders and improve their profit margin on them.

* * *

Chuck had created their defense contractor company, Raccoon City (it was meant to be a play on Skunk Works, but they let it go when gamers associated it with the Resident Evil game), as a shell company in Ninety Seven to run their operation up at Plant 42 when Auntie Di took control of the Stealth Helicopter Project after Hank was co-opted into it. At first the primary reason for creating Raccoon City was to cover up where they got the sort of money needed to run an operation of that nature (which was why it was based in the Cayman Islands), but when he stopped to think about it he decided that if the stealth conversions panned out the way they expected, _they_ should be the ones who reaped the fruits of their labours, rather than letting someone else do it, so he expanded the shelf company into a full working business with registered offices in Plant 42. As Chuck was the one who owned, managed and funded Raccoon City, it became a fully owned subsidiary of Carmichael Industries when it was created like their other companies.

At least with total control of the company he didn't have to argue with Auntie Di over the way it was operated. When she tried to dictate what they were going to do at the start he told her that either he was going to run it or she was, but if she wanted to run it _she_ was going to be the one who had to do everything, not him! Auntie Di was bright enough to know that he meant what he said, and that this operation would go better with him running it, so she backed off and dealt with him on a professional basis as the government representative working with the defense contractor running the project. It also meant that she had to hold her tongue over the fact that he had eight highly qualified and well paid aeronautical engineers working full time for a company that wasn't producing anything much of the time, and he was making use of his father's genius as well. She made a point not to ask about where the tens of millions that were going into the company every year came from to maintain plausible deniability. Of course, the cheeky little scamp made it difficult to do that when he openly operated under the persona of 'The Diplomat' and used a Jolly Roger as his computer background when he was doing this work.

When they started the Stealth Helicopter Project, they'd bought a large hangar (a _very_ large hangar, as through Auntie Di's connections they'd managed to get the Air Force's old C-5 hangar which had originally been built in the early Eighties to take up to three C-5s written off in the Air Force's systems and sold to them cheap because it had been sitting largely unused for over a decade, but that worked out well for them when they needed somewhere to hide the An-122 and two An-70s) at Plant 42 to operate in because half of the people co-opted into the Stealth Helicopter Project were based there and the rest could fly straight in, and set up shop with all the equipment they needed to get to work. Having that much space had proved its worth soon enough when they acquired the Tigers, the Mark V SOC boat, the Thirty Seven, the EuroMil and _especially_ when they got Bertha, Boris and Andre.

* * *

The production and testing process for the Stealth Lakotas and Stealth Little Birds was gruelling, especially when they had to start dipping into the the airframes that needed to be repaired before they could be used, but luckily over half of the repairable airframes only needed minor repairs and the engineers had created the specialised jigs and equipment to do this when they created the Wagon, so they didn't slow the process down too much. The last of the 159 Stealth Lakotas and 52 Stealth Little Birds were delivered six months after they started work though, and it was agreed by all and sundry that the Stealth Helicopter Project was a resounding success. The military, Department of Justice and their allies, and even the CIA were quite impressed with the Stealth Lakotas' performance and accepted that they'd gotten value for money, and not counting the extra money Chuck sank into the property, plant and equipment for the fabrication of the stealth parts, Raccoon City had made $1.15 Billion dollars in profit from the operation. The seventy two Stealth Lakotas made them around $5.5 Million and the thirty Stealth Little Birds around $2.5 Million per machine overall from the U.S. Military, the Department of Justice's twenty six Stealth Lakotas made them around $6.5 Million and four Stealth Little Birds $3 Million apiece, the fifty seven Stealth Lakotas and eighteen Stealth Little Birds they got sign off to sell to allied military and intelligence bodies made them around $7 Million and $3.5 Million apiece respectively (their original two Stealth Little Birds were cleaned up and went to the base they used to pick up the airframes, they got the much improved machines as a thank you for their help) and they got around $9 Million each on the four Stealth Lakotas they finally gave in and let the CIA get. (Part of the terms of the deal was strict confidentiality in regard to price or any other details and the others weren't willing to jeopardise their chance to get more down the track if they needed them, so the CIA didn't know that the $10 Million plus apiece that they were paying for their Stealth Lakotas was at least two million more than the others were paying. With the fortunes that the CIA had stolen from people, they could certainly afford it.)

By the end of the Stealth Helicopter Conversion contract, the team at Raccoon City had built a hundred and seventy five Stealth Lakotas and sixty Stealth Little Birds, though eight of the Stealth Lakotas were the improved versions for their own group, which included the replacements for their first two Stealth little Birds. They had completed over one and a half a day on average and that was quite an effort. Chuck had been thinking about this and decided that they deserved to be rewarded for achieving all that in six months.

* * *

When the last of the Stealth Lakotas were delivered for the contract, Chuck gave everyone working on the project a week off and told them that they ('they' being him) had decided to implement a profit sharing scheme for the Stealth Lakota conversions. Hank and other eleven who made up the core team that had been working on this for over ten years would be getting half a percent of the profits each, and the other thirty who they'd brought in to help fabricate the components and assemble and test the helicopters would each get one tenth that much... and of course that would apply to the profit they made off the Stealth Ospreys as well.

John and most of the family laughed at Chuck when he couldn't understand why everyone at Raccoon City was falling all over themselves trying to thank him. Carina eventually sat him down to explain the facts of life to him.

"Chuck, just how much money do you think most people make?"

Chuck started mentally reviewing the pay scales for the on the books personnel that made up their groups. Carina was no fool though, she knew what he was doing and quickly cut him off.

"No. I said what _most_ people make Chuck! The majority of the imaginary, sorry... _virtual_ personnel who make up these groups of your's are paid at least two to three times what most people make."

She saw the surprise on his face as he processed that and internally breathed a sigh of relief, as it looked like she was getting through to him after all. But it was her turn to be surprised when he said. "I always thought that all that minimum wage bullshit Ellie, Auntie Em, Mom and I had to live with up until Ellie and I finished university was an exception and most people in America lived a lot better than that. The families of everyone we went to school with were all well off, we were the only poor kids at the school."

John laughed at that. "Come on genius, surely you know that you were set up in the one of the best established old money districts in LA because your godmother wanted to make sure that you and your sister got the best education, and the well established rich people always have the best schools and teachers. Of _course_ everyone you went to school in Acadia with was rich! How can you be so brilliant and so thick at the same time Chuck?"

Sarah cut him off. "That's because whether or not she planned it that way from the start, my aunt made sure that Chuck and Ellie never had a chance to fit in so that she could keep her geniuses on tap all the time to work for her! Casey, you've been around Chuck for at least fifteen or sixteen years now haven't you?"

"More like seventeen."

She nodded. "And in that time, how often has he been able to go out and be an ordinary guy, have fun and get to know people?"

Casey's jaw dropped as he processed what she was saying and tried to think of a time when Chuck had had a chance to lead anything like an ordinary life. His expression turned grimmer by the minute as he kept coming up blank. There had always been piles of work to do or missions to rush off to, and the closest thing to fun he could remember Chuck having was when he was racing cars or bikes or flying, or maybe running those fast special operations boats like that Mark V SOC prototype they didn't officially know he had (even though it was sitting on a trailer up in Raccoon City) up a tight, twisting river at speed. When they went to a bar or restaurant with the guys after a mission he'd usually just sit there pretending to enjoy himself because he couldn't really relate to the way the others were having fun. Chuck could charm and handle just about anyone easily, especially women, but that was always in terms of the mission, he couldn't think of a time he'd seen him having a genuinely relaxed, casual conversation with anyone other than Skip, Jeff, Anna, Lou or the family.

When she saw he'd gotten her point Sarah went on. "When Chuck was trying to explain to me why he fought Auntie Di to make sure he got the F Fives registered for Ellie and the others to use, he mentioned that both he and Ellie have been working eighteen to twenty hours a day for most of the last sixteen years or so... I'm guessing the memories you just went through confirmed that, didn't they?"

He nodded grimly.

"After Chuck casually dropped the bombshell on the Thirty Seven about you guys having access to over a hundred million available to pay for the plane when Auntie Di organised it, I knew that there was more to this operation than I was being told so I looked into it. You would have been around at the time he was scraping up the seventy or eighty million that he paid out for the initial property, plant and equipment to get Raccoon City started... _When he was sixteen!_ You were _also_ there when he dropped thirteen million on that arms dealer nine months later to buy the F Fives and his SOC Boat and stock up the group's armouries, then turned around and took that and another hundred and twenty odd million off him when he busted him a month later. And you know as well as I do what sort of budgets Captain and then _Admiral_ Carmichael has been managing to keep his special operations and intelligence groups going since Nine Eleven!... so why the hell would you be surprised that Chuck can't understand why the men and women he just gave several years' wages to as a part of the profit sharing scheme that _he_ thought up and implemented to try and do the right thing would be so grateful? He's _never_ had any frame of reference for ordinary people! You and Uncle Bry are probably the closest things to ordinary people he's known most of his life for god's sake and you're hardly ordinary _Colonel!_ "

Casey hung his head in shame as Sarah turned to Chuck. "Honey, what Carina was trying to make you understand is that it's only to be expected that most people are going to be both shocked and extremely grateful to be given nearly Six Hundred Thousand dollars unexpectedly, let alone Five and Three Quarter Million like Hank and the others got, because to most people that's an unbelievable fortune. It was the right thing, and a very good thing, to do for the people who made this work for us, but you gave them one hell of a shock when you did it. Casually telling them that they can expect more yet if the Osprey project works out probably broke some of them. You have to remember that while you've been routinely dealing in tens or hundreds of millions as you organise these operations around the world and the concerns you've set up to pay for them over the last ten or twelve years, that's just something that most people can't understand..."

She recalled something that might help get the point across. "Did you see Hank's face when you told Roan how high he could go with Gulfstream to close that deal?"

Chuck nodded.

"Well _that's_ the sort of reaction that most people have to casually dealing in multi million dollar figures! Hank knows that the group has the budget to do whatever it wants to, but he was still shocked when you talked about dropping Forty Million on Gulfstream as if it were nothing but pocket change."

Chuck nodded thoughtfully, starting to get the point of what they were saying.

Most of the next half hour was taken up by the others trying to apologise for laughing at him, and asking about what Sarah said about the hours he and Ellie worked. Later that night Sarah had her own apologies to make to Chuck, because that discussion had made a lot of earlier points fall into line for her too.

* * *

Chuck flew up to Plant 42 before dawn the next morning with Sarah to talk to Hank about the matter. Hank was delighted to hear the story of how Sarah had taken John down a peg or two, but he as aghast at what they shared about what Chuck and Ellie's lives had been like. It hit him all the harder because like John he realised that this had been going on right in front of him whenever he'd been working with those two and he'd never taken the time to see it.

They talked to the rest of the guys and everyone agreed to continue on a business as usual basis. They still had plenty of work to do, fabricating the parts for the two dozen Ospreys that they would be converting for the first batch, and maybe another two dozen after that if the Marines and Air Force got budget approval to go ahead. If they got the approval for more, this would most likely be repeated a few more times.

The ones in the core team asked permission to use the facilities to fabricate some parts for themselves in their free time though, because they'd decided that now that they had the money and access to facilities like they had in Raccoon City, they'd like to build up their own Wagons.

All of the core team at Raccoon City were pilots, and they'd been doing most of the test flights with the Twenty Eights, Wagons, Little Birds and Lakotas when they were modifying them. They were all quite proud of how the Wagons turned out, as they were great planes to fly, and very practical and fast to boot. As they had all the moulds and facilities to make up the carbon fibre wings, tails, fuselage panels, props and the like and the rest of the titanium components that they'd designed and created at Raccoon City, they were asking leave to use the facilities to fabricate the parts they needed to build up their own Wagons in their free time, because if they were building most of the components themselves and managed find the airframes they needed at a reasonable price, they shouldn't have any trouble building up their own planes with the Five and Three Quarter Million he gave them. Chuck had no trouble agreeing to them making use of the facilities as long as it didn't interfere with their main operations.

Before they left though, Hank asked Chuck if he would also be willing to do a deal to let him buy one of the 145 airframes and a set of the uprated turbines and stealth components that they'd fabricated at whatever he thought was a reasonable margin over what it cost him. Chuck had no problem with that of course but he had to ask... "I thought you really wanted to build up your own Wagon Hank? There's no problem doing a deal for the Lakota bits but I would have thought that you'd take the plane over a helicopter."

"Oh the Wagon _is_ my first priority Chuck, but when I was picking up the PC Twelve airframes to make up the extra Wagons as you asked, I got one from a buddy who's a... let's just call him an aircraft wrecker... and he had another airframe there that was sound where it needed to be that he was willing to let me have for a really good price. I already had the three airframes I needed but I've wanted my own Wagon ever since we built the first one and I had enough tucked away to cover it, so I said I'd take it. When he found out that it was really for me he gave me buddy's rates so I've got a little more to play with and it's in one of the containers out back. I figure that I should have enough to build up both it and the Stealth Lakota properly between that Five and Three Quarter Million and what I have left in the bank. If not, I'll just put the Wagon back into the container until I have the money to finish it."

The others looked thoughtful when he said that, thinking that they may not be able to afford both a Wagon and a Lakota (yet... Chuck had already told them that they could expect more bonuses when the Ospreys were done), but a Wagon and a Little Bird or Loach should be doable and their Stealth Little Bird and Stealth Loach were damned nice helicopters (maybe even more than the Lakota), so they asked if they could get the same deal on the helicopters. Chuck said of course they could.

Chuck looked at Hank musingly and asked how many other viable PC-12 airframes he'd found when he was looking for the airframes for extra Wagons that would be worth getting.

Hank stopped to think about that and said. "There are plenty available down south, after Katrina they generally just stripped the engines and anything else they could sell out of anything that was damaged and left them out back. I just took the first ones I found that met our criteria to get started on the job quicker."

Chuck nodded. "OK, use Andre to go down there and pick up PC Twelve airframes that are suitable and worth what they're asking... you're the best judge of that. Try to pick up enough for the guys and maybe one or two more if you can, we have five Wagons now that we've gotten the second one back from Pilatus but one or two more wouldn't hurt... That reminds me, we need to organise to take the other four to Pilatus to get them registered as PC Twenty Fours when we have a chance..."

"If you see anything else that strikes your fancy and you can fit it in you can get it too, but the PC Twelves have priority. You guys can have your pick of the airframes at three percent over what it costs us to get them here, and the same goes for the parts. When things are quiet, build up whatever's left over as Wagons for the group, along with the rest of the Six Hundreds and Five Hundreds and as many of the One Forty Five airframes that are viable to repair and build up as Stealth Lakotas, and our Osprey airframes as Stealth Ospreys. You can add your turbines for the Wagons and other components to the orders for our's to get a better price if you like. The same deal applies to the One Forty Five and Five and Six Hundred airframes and parts, and you guys can have your pick of the airframes before you start building up the rest. Get rid of any One Forty Five airframes that aren't viable to repair, there's no sense keeping them around, and we'll decide how many Stealth Lakotas, Little Birds and Loaches will be added to the Special Projects fleet when we know how many we have. There's no great rush on the extra machines for the Group, use your free time to get your's done and work on the rest when things are quiet here."

Hank and the others agreed that that arrangement was exceedingly fair and Hank said he'd fill the rest of the guys in, then Chuck and Sarah left to fly back down to Bob Hope (as they couldn't fly the Loach back to El Castillo until after dark). Chuck wasn't too surprised to hear that Hank, Yuri and some of the other guys left on the parts run that afternoon, because they were eager to get started on their planes.

* * *

There _had_ been one major surprise when Chuck and Hank went back to Plant Forty Two for the meeting with the military that Ellie told Hank to expect though. While the Navy, Marines and SOCOM were quite prepared to change to Lakotas for most stealth operations because they agreed that the extra capacity made them more useful for most covert missions, when they saw that the EuroMil sitting there had obviously been converted into a stealth helicopter as well, they wanted to know whether the same stealth modifications could be made to their V-22 Ospreys too. After they'd discussed it Hank and the rest of the team agreed to give it a try, and the Marines officially released and signed over the dozen MV-22 airframes that were sitting at AMARG over to the Special Projects Group to use for the trial. They didn't know how many, if any, of those airframes would be usable for the trial but they were desperate to see what these guys could come up with, so to avoid any possible delays in the project they just had all of the airframes allocated to the Special Projects Group and shipped to Plant Forty Two in hope that they'd be able to make up at least one or two that worked out of the remains.

Hank and the other operational specialists had been co-opted to the stealth project because they were the best their respective services had, with decades of experience with all sorts of military aircraft (Hank chose the other three because they were buddies, as people at their level found it hard to find someone worth talking to), so they knew about all the operational problems with the Ospreys, _especially_ the turbines. That was why one of the first things they did was contact GE about whether they were prepared and able to supply the turbines that they had submitted for the V-22 trials, and GE was happy to supply the latest version of the uprated GE38 turbines that had been developed from the GE27s they submitted for the V-22 to them at cost. The team also got to work building improved titanium transmissions for the Ospreys like they had for the helicopters, because they didn't trust the existing gearboxes to be strong enough to handle the load when the turbines were running at full power for stealth operations. Having the production lines set up to produce the Stealth Lakota parts freed up enough time for the core team to get a working model of a Stealth Osprey in the air in under three months, and they had what they wanted to present ready in under four and a half months..

They were fabricating the components for and building up their own personal Wagons and Stealth Lakotas and Loaches (they decided on the Six Hundreds over the Five Hundreds) in their free time in between converting the Ospreys, building up the rest of the Stealth Ospreys and Stealth Lakotas and creating the Propfan components for Pilatus. On top of that, they were fabricating a large amount of titanium and carbon fibre components for the G-65 flight test-bed, and this was a much bigger job than they had originally envisioned, because they were fabricating much of the fuselage, and they were making two of most panels and such because they were going to be used to create the next one as well. Hank was going to get the plug pulled on this until one of his buddies at Gulfstream filled him in on what was happening. The components they were fabricating were going into the two airframes that would be their's once the testing was done, and the purpose of this was to accelerate the creation of flight test-beds with the proper size and form to get enough flight data to work out the numbers that they needed build the 'proper' G-65 prototypes. Once the 'proper' prototypes were built, their two would be cleaned up and delivered to them, with the requirement that they continue to provide flight data, even with the proviso that it would need to be adjusted to account for the different flight characteristics of their much lighter prototypes. One concession Hank got out of this was that his full sized cargo hatch remained in the build for these two prototypes at least, they could scrub it from later builds but if these were going to be their planes they'd have the damned cargo hatch!.

When they first demonstrated the Stealth Ospreys, the Navy and Marines weren't too happy about having lost the fast fold capability for the rotor blades, but they were quick to accept the trade off of their maintenance people taking 10 or 15 minutes to fold the blades instead of the 90 second mechanised process when the increased speed, range and vertical take off capability were displayed…. Especially when it was pointed out that the different operational model for the Ospreys meant that the thicker rotor blades which were a big part of the increase in performance and range would give them quite acceptable stealth capabilities in asymmetric mode for the vast majority of their operations.

They were _really_ sold though when it was demonstrated that another Stealth Osprey with a modified version of the swivelling wing and removable nacelles and rudder fins could be converted between flight mode and a storage format that would fit into a C-5 Galaxy's hold in around an hour, and in fact _two_ Ospreys could fit into a Galaxy's hold in this format. This locked it in for the Air Force, and the Marines wanted the operational airlift capability too.

The Stealth Ospreys were looking likely to be an even bigger operation than the Stealth Lakotas, because the Air Force wanted all of the Ospreys they operated for SOCOM converted to gain to the airlift capability and increased performance and range (and reliability, as they found over time) that the modifications gave as much as the stealth capabilities. So did the Marines, but they eventually agreed to start with just a dozen each for special operations missions, as even that was going to cost five hundred million all up.

Boeing wasn't happy that they were being made to supply new Ospreys without the parts that were fitted for the stealth upgrade, or that the parts this defense contractor had created for the conversion were both patented _and_ officially classified as a national security matter, because that meant Boeing couldn't cut them out of the loop and use what they'd developed themselves. The fact that the Navy and Air Force used penalty clauses in the contracts to force them to transfer the agreed value of those omitted parts to the airframes was just twisting the knife.

Rolls Royce weren't happy either, because the Navy and Air Force had used the unreliability of their turbines to cancel their contracts, and made them come up with an agreed buy back plan for the faulty turbines they had supplied as they were being replaced.

GE on the other hand was _quite_ happy, because ultimately they were looking to sell hundreds of their GE38 turbines.

* * *

By the end of the year, they'd converted two batches of two dozen Ospreys, netting another $700 Million in profit for Raccoon City, which on turn meant $3.5 Million more for Hank and the core team and another $350 Thousand each for the rest of them. The car park out the back of Raccoon City was looking like it belonged to a millionaires' country club because the best of the American made and European machinery was well represented. It had also given the core team the money to complete their machines, so there was usually a line of Wagons, Lakotas and Loaches out the front.

With the tactical value of the Ospreys, the core team at Raccoon City decided that whatever it took to recover the dozen Ospreys that had been formally signed over to the Special Projects Group to develop the Stealth Ospreys, it would be worth it. Chuck agreed, so they were all repaired and built up as Stealth Ospreys (improved versions of what the military got, the five which had been too damaged to worth recovering especially because they were essentially a brand new design now, a little bigger but lighter, faster, and with increased capacity for both internal and slung loads). As with everything else in the Special Projects fleet, their Ospreys were officially owned by Raccoon City so the military couldn't touch them.

The eleven Wagons, two Lakotas and ten Loaches that the guys had built up for themselves (and Ellie and Anna's Loaches and Chuck's Stingray) were also listed as Special Projects aircraft so that they had the necessary clearances to go onto military bases. This meant that by the end of 2008, the Special Projects air fleet was _officially_ made up of two F-5Fs, one C-37B, two modified C-130J-30s, one modified C-5M, twenty modified U-28As (two U-28 Propfans and eighteen Wagons), one modified C-145, twelve modified CV-22s, one modified MH-68A, one modified MH-60, twelve modified OH-6s and twelve modified UH-72Bs.

While the real details of the An-70s, An-122 and Mi-38 were in the Air Force's records, under the terms of the agreements with Antonov and Mil those records were sealed, so the designations for the aircraft that were closest approximations in the Air Force's fleet were used to identify them, just as the 600s were officially identified as OH-6s.

Yuri's amphibian had been a struggle to get registered, but they managed. Hank saw his eyes light up when he saw the remains of an An-38 in one of the aircraft bone yards they went to looking for PC-12 airframes, and he reminded him that Chuck had said that they could get what they wanted as long as they could fit it in. He questioned that decision when Yuri then made him backtrack two states to pick up remains of the Canadair CL-215 he'd seen there, but he was intrigued at what he was planning. He was getting excited by the time Yuri finished telling him, and he and the other guys had all helped Yuri work on his project. His amphibian was the result of that project, a 51 foot long amphibious aircraft that had an An-38 fuselage and tail married to cut down CL-215 wings, hull and undercarriage (with much of both replaced with the improved components they created of course). It was powered by a pair of the down scaled propfans and as expected, it performed quite well, cruising quite happily at 350 knots and retaining most of the An-38's STOL capability. Aside from the bigger wingspan it wasn't much bigger than the Wagons, but it was roomier inside due to the taller and wider cabin. Yuri had always like the flexibility of amphibians but was unimpressed with existing amphibians, so when he saw the An-38 and remembered seeing the remains of the CL-215 in the previous bone yard, his mind went into overdrive, working how he could build the amphibian he wanted out of the two.


End file.
